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AN 

APPEAL 

TO 


MATTER  OP  FACT  AND  COMMON  SENSE/ 

oi, 

A.  RATIONAL  DEMONSTRATION 


MAN'S  CORRUPT  AND  LOST  ESTATE. 


Ye  pompous  sons  of  Reason  idolized 
And  vilifi'd  at  once;  of  Reason  dead, 
Then  deifi'd  as  monarchs  were  of  old; 
Wrong  not  the  Christian;  think  not  Reason  yours; 
'Tis  Reason  onr  great  jMaster  holds  so  dear; 
'Tis  Reason's  injured  rights  his  wrath  resents; 
'Tis  Reason's  voice  obey'd  his  glories  crown; 
To  give  lost  Reason  life  he  pour'd  his  own: 
Believe,  and  show  the  Reason  of  a  man; 
Beheve,  and  taste  the  pleasure  of  a  God; 
Through  Reason's  wonnds  alone  thy  faith  can  die. 

YouNo's  Night  Thocohts. 

The  Son  of  man  is  corae  to  seek  and  to  save  that  whioh  wai 
lost. — Luke  xix,  18. 


Cinrinnati : 

PUBUSHED  BY  SWORMSTEDT  AND  POWER, 

FOR  THE  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH,  AT  THE  WESTERN  BOOK 
OONCERN,  CORNER  Or  MAIN  AND  EIGHTH  STREETS. 

R.  P.  THOMPSON,  PRINTER. 
1850. 


J  i  ^i 


TO  THE  PRINCIPAL  INHABITANTS  OF  THE  PARISH  OF 
MADELEY,  IN  THE  COUNTY  OF  SALOP. 

Gentlemen, — You  are  no  less  entitled  to  my 
private  labors  than  the  inferior  class  of  my 
parishioners.  As  you  do  not  choose  to  partake 
with  them  of  my  evening  instructions,  I  take 
the  liberty  to  present  you  with  some  of  my 
morning  meditations.  May  these  well-meant  en- 
deavors of  my  pen  be  more  acceptable  to  you 
than  those  of  my  tongue !  And  may  you  care- 
fully read  in  your  closets,  what  you  have,  per- 
haps, inattentively  heard  in  the  church !  I  ap- 
peal to  the  Searcher  of  hearts,  that  I  had  rather 
impart  truth  than  receive  tithes;  you  kindly 
bestow  the  latter  upon  me;  grant  me,  I  pray, 
the  satisfaction  of  seeing  you  favorably  receive 
the  former,  from,  gentlemen, 

Your  affectionate  minister, 

And  obedient  servant, 

J.  FLETCHERE. 

Madeley,  1772. 


CONTENTS. 

AN  INTRODUCTION. 

FIRST  PART. 

The  doctrine  of  man's  corrnpt  and  lost  estate  is  stated  at  large,  in 
the  words  of  the  Prophets,  Apostles,  and  Jesns  Christ;  and  recapit- 
nlated  in  those  of  the  Articles,  Homilies,  and  Liturgy  of  the  Church 
of  England. 

SECOND   PART. 

Man  is  considered  as  an  inhabitant  of  the  natural  world,  and  his 
fall  is  proved  by  arguments  deduced  from  the  misery,  in  which  he  ii 
now  undeniably  involved:  compared  with  the  happiness  of  which 
we  can  not  help  conceiving  him  possessed  when  he  came  out  of  the 
hands  of  his  gracious  Creator. 

A  view  of  this  misery  in  the  following  particulars:  I.  The  disor- 
ders of  the  globe  we  inhabit,  and  the  dreadful  scourges  with  which 
it  is  visited.  II.  The  deplorable  and  shocking  circumstances  of  our 
birth.  III.  The  painful  and  dangerous  travail  of  women.  IV.  The 
untimely  dissolution  of  still-born  or  new-bom  children.  Y.  Onr 
natural  nncleanness,  helplessness,  ignorance,  and  nakedness.  VI. 
The  gross  darkness  in  which  we  naturally  are,  both  with  respect  to 
God  and  a  future  state.  Vn.  The  general  rebellion  of  the  bmt« 
creation  against  us.  VIII.  The  various  poisons  that  lurk  in  the 
animal,  vegetable,  and  mineral  world,  ready  to  destroy  us.  IX. 
The  heavy  curse  of  toil  and  sweat,  to  which  we  are  liable;  instances 
of  which  are  given  in  the  hard  and  dangerous  labors  of  the  author's 
parishioners.  X.  The  other  innumerable  calamities  of  life.  And, 
XI.  The  pangs  of  death. 

THIRD   PART. 

Man  is  considered  as  a  citizen  of  the  moral  world,  a  free  agent, 
accountable  to  his  Creator  for  his  tempers  and  conduct;  and  his  fall 
is  farther  demonstrated  by  arguments  drawn  from — XII.  His  com- 
mission of  sin.  XIII.  His  omission  of  duty.  XIV.  The  triumphs 
of  sensual  appetites  over  his  intellectual  faculties.  XV.  The  cor- 
ruption of  the  powers  that  constitute  a  pood  head;  the  understand- 
ing, imagination,  memory,  and  reason.  XVI.  The  depravity  of  the 
powers  which  form  a  good  heart;  the  will,  conscience,  and  aflTections. 
XVII.  His  manifest  alienation  from  God.  XVHI.  His  amasing 
disregard  even  of  his  nearest  relatives.     XIX.  His  unaccountable 


6  CONTENTS. 

nnconcern  about  himself.  XX.  His  detestable  tempers.  XXI.  The 
general  ontbreathings  of  hnman  comiption  in  all  individuals.  XXII. 
The  universal  overflowing  of  it  in  all  nations;  five  objections  an- 
swered. XXIII.  Some  striking  proofs  of  this  depravity  in  the  gen- 
eral propensity  of  mankind  to  vain,  irrational,  or  crnel  diversions. 
And,  XXIV.  In  the  universality  of  the  most  ridicnious,  impious, 
inhuman,  and  diabolical  sins.  XXV.  The  aggravating  circum- 
stances attending  the  display  of  this  corruption.  XXVI.  The  many 
ineffectual  endeavors  to  stem  its  torrent.  XXVII.  The  obstinate 
resistance  it  makes  to  Divine  grace  in  the  unconverted.  XXVIII. 
The  amazing  struggles  of  good  men  with  it.  XXIX.  The  testi- 
mony of  the  heathens  and  Deists  concerning  it.  And  after  all,  XXX. 
The  preposterous  conceit  which  the  unconverted  have  of  their  own 
goodness. 

FOURTH  PART. 

Man  is  considered  as  an  inhabitant  of  the  Christian  world;  and 
his  fallen  state  is  further  proved  by  six  Scriptural  arguments,  intro* 
duced  by  a  short  demonstration  of  the  authenticity  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  by  a  little  attack  upon  the  amazing  credulity  of  Deists. 
The  heads  of  these  arguments  are,  XXXI.  The  impossibility  that 
fallen,  corrupt  Adam  should  have  had  an  upright,  innocent  postenty: 
with  answers  to  some  capital  objections.  XXXII.  The  spirituality 
and  severity  of  God's  law,  which  the  unrenewed  man  continually 
breaks.  And,  XXXIII.  Our  strong  propensity  to  unbelief,  the  roost 
destructive  of  all  sins,  according  to  the  Gospel.  XXXTV.  The  ab. 
snrdity  of  the  Christian  religion  with  respect  to  infants  and  strict 
moralists.  XXXV.  The  harshness  and  cruelty  of  Christ's  funda- 
mental doctrines.  And,  XXXVI.  The  extravagance  of  the  grand 
article  of  the  Christian  faith;  if  mankind  are  not  in  a  corrupt  and 
lost  estate. 

KIFTH    PART. 

The  doctrine  of  man's  fall  being  established  by  such  a  variety  of 
arguments;  first,  a  few  natural  inferences  are  added:  secondly,  va- 
rious fatal  consequences  attending  the  ignorance  of  onr  lost  estate: 
thirdly,  the  untpet^iabk  advantages  arising  from  the  right  knowledge 
of  it. 


INTRODUCTION. 


In  religious  matters  we  easily  run  into  ex- 
tremes. Nothing  is  more  common  than  to  see 
people  embracing  one  error,  under  the  plausible 
pretense  of  avoiding  another. 

Many,  through  fear  of  infidelity,  during  the 
night  of  ignorance,  and  storm  of  passion,  run 
against  the  wild  rocks  of  superstition  and  en- 
thusiasm ;  and  frequently  do  it  with  such  force, 
that  they  make  shipvyreck  of  the  faith,  and  have 
little  of  godliness  left,  except  a  few  broken  pieces 
of  its  form. 

Numbers,  to  shun  that  fatal  error,  steer  quite 
a  contrary  course ;  supposing  themselves  guided 
by  the  compass  of  reason,  when  they  only  follow 
that  of  prejudice ;  with  equal  violence  they  dash 
their  speculative  brains  against  the  opposite  rocks 
of  Deism  and  profaneness ;  and  fondly  congratu- 
late themselves  on  escaping  the  shelves  of  fanati- 
cism, while  the  leaky  bark  of  their  hopes  is 
ready  to  sink,  and  that  of  their  morals  is,  perhaps, 
sunk  already.  Thus,  both  equally  overlook 
sober,  rational,  heart-felt  piety,  that  lies  between 
those  wide  and  dangerous  extremes. 

To  point  out  the  happy  medium  which  they 
have  missed,  and  call  them  back  to  the  narrow 
path  where  reason  and  revelation  walk  hand  in 
hand,  is  the  design  of  these  sheets.  May  the 
Father  of  lights  so  shine  upon  the  reader's  mind, 

7 


8  INTRODUCTION. 

that  he  may  clearly  discover  Truth,  and,  notwith- 
standing the  severity  of  her  aspect,  prefer  her  to 
the  most  soothing  error! 

If  he  is  one  of  those  wlio  aflPect  to  be  the 
warm  votaries  of  reason,  he  is  entreated  to  be  a 
close  thinker,  as  well  as  a  free  thinker ;  and  with 
careful  attention  to  consider  reason's  dictates, 
before  he  concludes  that  they  agree  with  his  fa- 
vorite sentiments.  He  has,  no  doubt,  too  much 
candor  not  to  grant  so  equitable  a  request;  too 
much  justice  to  set  aside  matter  of  fact ;  and  too 
much  good  sense  to  disregard  an  appeal  to  com- 
mon sense. 

Should  he  incline  to  the  opposite  extreme,  and 
cry  down  our  rational  powers,  he  is  desired  to  re- 
member, right  reason,  which  is  that  I  appeal  to, 
is  a  ray  of  the  light  that  enlightens  every  man  who 
comes  into  the  world,  and  a  beam  of  the  eternal 
Logos,  the  glorious  Sun  of  righteousness. 

God,  far  from  blaming  a  proper  use  of  the 
noble  faculty  by  which  we  are  chiefly  distin- 
guished from  brutes,  graciously  invites  us  to  the 
exercise  of  it :  Come,  now,  says  he,  and  let  us 
reason  together.  Jesus  comm^ends  the  unjust 
steward,  for  reasoning  better  upon  his  wrong, 
than  the  children  of  light  upon  their  right  prin- 
ciples. Samuel  desires  the  Israelites  to  stand 
still,  that  he  may  reason  with  tliem  before  the 
Lord.  St.  Peter  charges  believers  to  give  an 
answer  to  every  one  that  asketh  tfiem  a  reason 
of  their  hope.  And  St.  Paul,  who  reasoned  so 
conclusively  himself,  intimates  that  vncked  men 
are  unreasonable;   and  declares  that  a  total 


INTRODUCTION.  9 

dedication  of  ourselves  to  God  is  our  beason- 
ABLE  service ;  and,  while  he  challenges  the  vain 
disputers  of  this  world,  who  would  make  jests 
pass  for  proofs,  invectives  for  arguments,  and 
sophistry  for  reason,  he  charges  Titus  to  use, 
not  merely  so^ind  speech,  but  as  the  original  also 
means,  sound  reason,  that  he  who  is  of  the  con- 
trary part  may  he  ashamed. 

Let  us,  then,  following  his  advice  and  example, 
pay  a  due  regard  both  to  reason  and  revelation ; 
so  shall  we,  according  to  his  candid  direction, 
break  the  shackles  of  prejudice,  jyrove  all  things, 
and,  by  Divine  grace,  hold  fast  thai  which  is 
good. 


AN  APPEAL  TO  MATTER  OF  FACT. 


FIRST  PART. 

In  every  religion  there  is  a  principal  truth  or 
error,  which,  like  the  first  link  of  a  chain,  neces- 
sarily draws  after  it  all  the  parts  with  which  it 
is  essentially  connected.  This  leading  principle, 
in  Christianity,  distinguished  from  Deism,  is 
the  doctrine  of  our  corrupt  and  lost  estate ;  for 
if  man  is  not  at  variance  with  his  Creator,  what 
need  of  a  Mediator  between  God  and  him  ?  If 
he  is  not  a  depraved,  undone  creature,  what  ne- 
cessity of  so  wonderful  a  Restorer  and  Savior 
as  the  Son  of  God?  If  he  is  not  enslaved  to 
sin,  why  is  he  redeemed  by  Jesus  Christ?  If 
he  is  not  polluted,  why  must  he  be  washed  in 
the  blood  of  that  immaculate  Lamb?  If  his 
soul  is  not  disordered,  what  occasion  is  there  for 
*such  a  divine  Physician?  If  he  is  not  help- 
less and  miserable,  why  is  he  perpetually  invited 
to  secure  the  assistance  and  consolations  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  ?  And,  in  a  word,  if  he  is  not  bom 
in  sin,  why  is  a  new  birth  so  absolutely  neces- 
sary, that  Christ  declares,  with  the  most  solemn 
asseverations,  without  it  no  man  can  see  the  king- 
dom of  God?  11 


12  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  I. 

This  doctrine  then  being  of  such  importance, 
that  genuine  Christianity  stands  or  falls  with  it, 
it  may  be  proper  to  state  it  at  large  ;  and  as  this 
can  not  be  done  in  stronger  and  plainer  words 
than  those  of  the  sacred  writers,  and  our  pious 
reformers,  I  beg  leave  to  collect  them  and  pre- 
sent the  reader  with  a  picture  of  our  natural 
estate,  drawn  at  full  length  by  those  ancient  and 
masterly  hands. 

I.  Moses,  who  informs  us  that  God  created 
man  in  his  own  image,  and  after  his  Ukeness, 
soon  casts  a  shade  upon  his  original  dignity,  by 
giving  us  a  sad  account  of  his  fall.  He  repre- 
sents him  after  his  disobedience  as  a  criminal 
under  sentence  of  death;  a  wretch  filled  with 
guilt,  shame,  dread,  and  horror ;  and  a  vagabond, 
turned  out  of  a  lost  paradise  into  a  cursed  wilder- 
ness, where  all  bears  the  stamp  of  desolation  for 
his  sake.  Gen.  iii,  17.  In  consequence  of  this 
apostasy  he  died,  and  all  die  in  him ;  for  by  one 
man  sin  entered  into  the  world,  and  death  by  sin  ; 
and  so  death  passed  upon  all  men,  for  that  all 
have  sinned  in  him,  who  was  all  mankind  semi- 
nally  and  federally  collected  in  one  individual, 
1  Cor.  XV,  22 ;  Rom.  v,  12. 

The  sacred  historian,  having  informed  us  how* 
the  first  man  was  corrupted,  observes  that  he 
begat  a  son  in  his  own  image,  sinful  and  mortal 
like  himself;  that  his  first-bom  was  a  murderer; 
that  Abel  himself  oflFered  sacrifices  to  avert  Di- 
vine wrath,  and  that  the  violent  temper  of  Cain 
soon  broke  out  in  all  the  human  species.  The 
earth,  says  he,  was  filled  with  violence,  all  flesh 


PART  I.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  18 

had  corrupted  its  way — and  God  saw  the  wick- 
edness of  man  was  great  in  the  earth,  so  great, 
that  every  imagination  of  the  thoughts  of  his 
heart  was  only  evil,  continually.  Only  evil, 
without  any  mixture  of  good;  and  continually, 
without  any  intermission  of  the  evil,  Gen.  vi,  5. 

When  the  Deluge  was  over,  the  Lord  himself 
gave  the  same  account  of  his  obstinately-rebel- 
lious creature.  The  imagination  of  man's  heart, 
said  he  to  Noah,  is  evil  from  his  youth.  Gen.  viii, 
21.  Job's  friends  paint  us  with  the  same  colors ; 
one  of  them  observes,  that  man  is  born  like  the 
wild  ass'  colt,  and  another,  that  he  is  abomina- 
ble and  filthy,  and  drinks  iniquity  like  water,  Job 
xi,  12,  and  xv,  16. 

David  doth  not  alter  the  hideous  portrait ;  the 
Lord,  says  he,  looked  down  from  heaven  upon 
the  children  of  men;  to  see  if  there  were  any 
that  did  understand  and  seek  God.  And  the 
result  of  the  Divine  inspection  is,  they  are  all 
gone  aside,  they  are  altogether  become  filthy; 
there  is  none  that  doth  good,  no  not  one.  Psalm 
xiv,  2.  Solomon  gives  a  finishing  stroke  to  his 
father's  draught,  by  informing  us,  that  foolish- 
ness is  bound  in  the  heart  of  a  child ;  and  not  of 
a  child  only,  for  he  adds.  The  heart  of  the  sons 
of  men  is  full  of  evil,  and  while  they  live,  mad- 
ness is  in  their  heart,  Prov.  xxii,  15 ;  Eccl.  ix,  3. 

Isaiah  corroborates  the  assertions  of  the  royal 
prophets,  in  the  following  mournful  confession : 
A.1I  we,  like  sheep,  have  gone  astray — we  are 
all  as  an  unclean  thing,  and  all  our  righteous- 
nesses are  as  filthy  rags,  Isa.  liii,  6,  and  Ixiv,  6. 


14  AN  APPKAL  TO  [PART  I. 

Jeremiah  confirms  the  deplorable  truth,  where 
he  says:  The  sin  of  Judah  is  written  with  a  pen 
of  iron,  and  with  the  point  of  a  diamond ;  it  is 
graven  upon  the  tables  of  their  hearts ;  O  Jeru- 
salem, wash  thy  feet  from  wickedness,  that  thou 
mayest  be  saved ;  for  the  heart  is  deceitful  above 
all  things,  and  desperately  wicked:  who  can 
know  it?  Jer.  iv,  14,  and  xvii,  1,  9. 

Thus  the  prophets  dehneate  mankind  in  a 
natural,  impenitent  state.  And  do  the  apostles 
dip  their  pencil  in  brighter  colors?  Let  them 
speak  for  themselves.  The  chief  of  them  in- 
forms us,  that  the  natural,  unrenewed  man 
receives  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and 
that  they  are  foolishness  to  him,  1  Cor.  ii,  14. 
And  he  lays  it  down  as  matter  of  fact,  that  the 
carnal  mind,  the  taste  and  disposition  of  every 
unregenerate  person,  is  not  only  averse  to  good- 
ness, but  enmity  itself  against  God,  the  adorable 
fountain  of  all  excellence.  A  blacker  line  can 
hardly  be  drawn  to  describe  a  fallen,  diabolical 
nature,  Rom,  viii,  7. 

Various  are  the  names  which  the  apostle  of 
the  Gentiles  gives  to  our  original  corruption ; 
and  they  are  all  expressive  of  its  pernicious 
nature  and  dreadful  effects.  He  calls  it  em- 
phatically sin,  a  sin  so  full  of  activity  and  energy, 
that  it  is  the  life  and  spring  of  all  others  ;  in- 
dwelling sin,  a  sin  which  is  not  like  the  leaves 
and  fruit  of  a  bad  tree,  that  appear  for  a  time, 
and  then  drop  off,  but  like  the  sap  that  dwells 
and  works  within,  always  ready  to  break  out  at 
every  bud;   the  body  of  sin,  because  it  is  an 


PART  I.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  II) 

assemblage  of  all  possible  sins  in  embryo,  as 
our  body  is  an  assemblage  of  all  the  members 
which  constitute  the  human  frame;  the  law  of 
sin,  and  the  law  in  our  members,  because  it 
hath  a  constraining  force,  and  rules  in  our  mortal 
bodies,  as  a  mighty  tyrant  in  the  kingdom  which 
he  hath  usurped ;  the  old  man,  because  we  have 
it  from  the  first  man  Adam,  and  because  it  is  as 
old  as  the  first  stamina  of  our  frame,  with  which 
it  is  most  closely  interwoven ;  the  flesh,  as  being 
propagated  by  carnal  generation,  and  always 
opposing  the  Spirit,  the  gracious  principle,  which 
we  have  from  Adam  the  second;  and  concu- 
piscence, the  mystic  Jezebel,  who  brings  forth 
the  infinite  variety  of  fleshly,  worldly,  and  men- 
tal lusts,  which  war  against  the  soul. 

Nor  are  St.  James  and  St.  John  less  severe 
than  St.  Paul  upon  the  unconverted  man.  The 
one  observes,  that  his  wisdom,  the  best  property 
naturally  belonging  to  him,  descendeth  not  from 
above,  but  is  earthly,  sensual,  and  devilish ;  and 
the  other  positively  declares,  that  the  whole 
world  lieth  in  wickedness,  James  iii,  15  ;  1  John 
V,  19. 

Our  Lord,  whose  Spirit  inspired  the  prophets 
and  apostles,  confirms  their  lamentable  testi- 
mony. To  make  us  seriously  consider  sin,  our 
mortal  disease,  he  reminds  us  that  the  whole 
have  no  need  of  a  physician,  but  they  that  are 
sick,  Luke  v,  31.  He  declares,  that  men  love 
darkness  rather  than  Ught.  That  the  world  hates 
him;  and  that  its  works  are  evil,  John  iii,  19, 
XV,  18,  vii,  7.     He  directs  all  to  pray  for  the 


16  AK  APPEAL  TO  [pART  I. 

pardon  of  sin,  as  being  evil,  and  owing  ten 
thousand  talents  to  their  heavenly  Creditor, 
Matt,  vi,  12,  viii,  11,  xviii,  24.  And  he  assures 
us,  that  the  things  which  defile  the  man  come 
from  within ;  and  that  out  of  the  heart  proceed 
evil  thoughts,  adulteries,  fornications,  murders, 
thefts,  covetousness,  wickedness,  deceit,  lasciv- 
iousness,  an  evil  eye,  blasphemy,  pride,  foolish- 
ness, and,  in  a  word,  all  moral  evil,  Mark  vii,  21 ; 
Matt.  XV,  19. 

Some  indeed  confine  what  the  Scriptures  say 
of  the  depravity  of  the  human  heart,  to  the 
abandoned  heathens  and  persecuting  Jews;  as 
if  the  professors  of  morality  and  Christianity 
were  not  concerned  in  the  dreadful  charge.  But 
if  the  apostolic  writings  affirm  that  Christ  came 
not  to  call  the  righteous,  but  sinners,  that  he 
died  for  the  ungodly,  and  that  he  suff'ered,  the 
just  for  the  unjust,  it  is  plain  that,  unless  he  did 
not  sufifer  and  die  for  moral  men  and  Christians, 
they  are  by  nature  sinners,  ungodly,  and  unjust 
as  the  rest  of  mankind,  Rom.  v,  6 ;  1  Pet. 
iii,  18. 

If  this  assertion  seems  severe,  let  some  of  the 
best  men  that  ever  lived  decide  the  point,  not 
by  the  experience  of  immoral  persons,  but  by 
their  own.  I  abhor  myself,  says  Job,  and  re- 
pent in  dust  and  ashes.  Job  xlii,  6.  Behold,  I 
was  shapen  in  iniquity,  says  David,  and  in  sin 
did  my  mother  conceive  me,  Psalra  li,  5.  Woe 
is  me,  for  I  am  undone,  says  Isaiah,  because  £ 
am  a  man  of  unclean  lips,  Isa.  vi,  5.  I  know, 
says  St.  Paul,  that  in  me,  that  is,  in  my  flesh. 


PART  I.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  17 

dwelleth  no  good  thing,  Rom.  vii,  18.  We  our- 
selves, says  he  to  Titus,  were  sometimes  foolish, 
disobedient,  deceived,  serving  divers  lusts  and 
pleasures,  living  in  malice  and  envy,  hateful  and 
hating  one  another.  Tit.  iii,  3.  And  speaking 
of  himself  and  the  Christians  at  Ephesus,  he 
leaves  upon  record  this  memorable  sentence. 
We  were  by  nature  the  children  of  wrath,  even 
as  others,  Eph.  ii,  3.  Such  humbling  thoughts 
have  the  best  of  men  entertained,  both  of  their 
natural  estate  and  themselves. 

But  as  no  one  is  a  more  proper  person  to  ap- 
peal to,  in  this  matter,  than  this  learned  apostle, 
who,  by  continually  conversing  with  Jews,  hea- 
thens, and  Christians,  in  his  ti'avels,  had  such  an 
opportunity  of  knowing  mankind ;  let  us  hear 
him  sum  up  the  suffrages  of  his  inspired  brethren. 
What,  then,  says  he,  are  we  better  than  they? 
Better  than  the  immoral  Pagans  and  hypocritical 
Jews,  described  in  the  two  preceding  chapters? 
No,  in  nowise.  And  he  proves  it  by  observing: 
1.  The  Mnzversa^i^y  of  human  corruption ;  aZZ  are 
under  sin,  as  it  is  written,  there  is  none  righteous, 
no,  not  one.  2.  The  extent  of  it  in  individuals, 
as  it  affects  the  whole  man,  especially  his  mind ; 
there  is  none  that  understandeth  the  things  of 
God.  His  affections,  there  is  none  that  seeketh 
after  God.  And  his  actions,  they  are  all  gone 
out  of  the  way  of  duty.  There  is  none  that 
doeth  good,  no,  not  one.  For  all  have  their 
conversation  in  the  lusts  of  the  flesh  and  of  the 
mind.  3.  The  outhreakings  of  this  corruption 
through  all  the  parts  of  the  body.  Their  throat, 
2 


18  AK  APPEAL  TO  [PART  I. 

their  lips,  their  mouth,  their  feet,  their  eyes,  and 
all  their  members,  are  together  become  unprofit- 
able, and  instruments  of  unrighteousness.  As 
for  their  tongue,  says  St.  James,  it  is  a  world 
of  iniquity,  it  defileth  the  whole  body,  and  sets 
on  fire  the  course  of  nature,  and  is  set  on  fire 
of  hell.  And  lastly,  its  malignity  and  virulence : 
it  is  loathsome  as  an  open  sepulcher,  terrible  as 
one  who  runs  to  shed  blood,  and  mortal  as  the 
poison  of  asps. 

From  the  whole,  speaking  of  all  mankind,  in 
their  unregenerate  state,  he  justly  infers  that  de- 
struction and  misery  are  in  their  ways.  And, 
lest  the  self-righteous  should  flatter  themselves, 
that  this  alarming  declaration  doth  not  regard 
them,  he  adds,  that  the  Scriptures  conclude  all 
under  sin ;  that  there  is  no  difference,  for  all  have 
sinned  and  come  short  of  the  glory  of  God ;  and 
that  the  moral  law  denounces  a  general  curse 
against  its  violators,  that  every  mouth  may  be 
stopped,  and  all  the  world  may  become  guilty 
before  God,  Rom.  iii,  9-23,  vi,  19;  Eph.  ii,  2. 

If  man  is  thus  corrupt  and  guilty,  he  must  be 
liable  to  condign  punishment.  Therefore,  as 
the  prophets  and  apostles  agree  with  our  Lord 
in  their  dismal  descriptions  of  his  depravity,  so 
they  harmonize  with  him  in  their  alarming  ac- 
counts of  his  danger.  Till  he  flies  to  the  Re- 
deemer as  a  condemned  malefactor,  and  secures 
an  interest  in  the  salvation  provided  for  the  lost, 
they  represent  him  as  on  the  brink  of  ruin. 

They  inform  us  that  the  wrath  of  God  is  re- 
vealed   from    heaven,   not   only   against   some 


fAHTl]  MATTER  OF  PACT.  19 

atrocious  crimes,  but  against  all  unrighteousness 
of  men,  Rom.  i,  18.  That  every  transgression 
and  disobedience  shall  receive  a  just  recom- 
pense of  reward,  Heb.  ii,  2.  That  the  soul  that 
sinneth  shall  die,  because  the  wages  of  sin  is 
death,  Ezek.  xviii,  4;  Romans  vi,  23.  They 
declare,  that  they  are  cursed,  who  do  err  from 
God's  commandments ;  that  cursed  is  the  man 
whose  heart  departeth  from  the  Lord  ;  that  cursed 
is  every  one  who  continues  not  in  all  things  which 
are  written  in  the  book  of  the  law  to  do  them ; 
that  whosoever  shall  keep  the  whole  law,  and  yet 
offend  in  one  point,  is  guilty  of  all ;  and  that,  as 
many  as  have  sinned  without  law,  shall  also 
perish  without  law.  Psalm  cxix,  21 ;  Jer.  xvii, 
5;  Gal.  iii,  10;  James  ii,  10;  Rom.  ii,  12. 

They  entreat  us  to  turn,  lest  we  should  be 
found  with  the  many  in  the  broad  way  to  de- 
struction, Ezek.  xviii,  23;  Matt,  vii,  13.  They 
affectionately  inform  us^  that  it  is  a  fearful  thing 
to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  living  God ;  that 
our  God  is  a  consuming  fire  to  the  unregenerate ; 
that  indignation  and  wrath,  tribulation  and  an- 
guish, hang  over  every  soul  of  man  who  doeth 
evil ;  that  the  Lord  shall  be  revealed  from  heaven 
in  flaming  fire,  to  take  vengeance  on  them  who 
know  him  not,  and  obey  not  the  Gospel ;  that 
the  wicked  shall  be  turned  into  hell,  and  all  the 
people  that  forget  God ;  that  they  shall  be  pun- 
ished with  eternal  destruction,  from  the  presence 
of  the  Lord,  and  from  the  glory  of  his  power; 
and  that  they  all  shall  be  damned  who  believe 
not  the  truth,  but  have  pleasure  in  unrighteous- 


20  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  I. 

ness,  Heb.  x,  31,  xii,  29  ;  Rom.  ii,  9 ;  2  Thess.  i, 
8,  ii,  12;  Psalm  ix,  17. 

Nor  does  our  Lord,  who  is  both  the  fountain 
and  pattern  of  true  charity,  speak  a  different 
language.  He  bids  us  fear  him  who  is  able  to 
destroy  both  soul  and  body  in  hell,  Luke  xii,  5. 
He  solemnly  charges  us  to  oppose  corrupt  nature 
with  the  utmost  resolution,  lest  we  be  cast  into 
hell,  where  the  worm  dieth  not,  and  the  fire  is 
not  quenched,  Mark  ix,  43.  With  tenderness 
he  informs  us,  that  whosoever  shall  say  to  his 
brother,  Thou  fool !  shall  be  in  danger  of  hell 
fire ;  that  not  only  the  wicked,  but  the  unprofit- 
able servant,  shall  be  cast  into  outer  darkness, 
where  will  be  weeping,  wailing,  and  gnashing  of 
teeth  ;  and  that  he  himself,  far  from  conniving  at 
sin,  will  fix  the  doom  of  all  impenitent  sinners 
by  this  dreadful  sentence :  Depart  from  me,  ye 
cursed,  into  everlasting  fire,  prepared  for  the 
devil  and  his  angels,  Matt.  v.  22,  xxv,  30,  41. 

IL  I  flatter  myself  that  the  doctrine  which  we 
are  to  try  by  the  touchstone  of  reason,  has  been 
already  sufficiently  estabhshed  from  Scripture. 
Nevertheless,  that  the  reader  may  have  the  full- 
est view  of  so  momentous  a  subject,  I  shall  yet 
present  him  with  a  recapitulation  of  the  whole, 
in  the  words  of  our  pious  reformers,  taken  out 
of  the  Articles,  Homilies,  and  Liturgy  of  the 
Church  of  England. 

The  ninth  article  thus  describes  our  depravity 
and  danger :  "  Original,  or  birth  sin,  is  the  fault 
and  corruption  of  the  nature  of  every  man,  that 
naturally  is  engendered  of  the  offspring  of  Adam ; 


PART  I.]  MATTER  OP  FACT.  21 

whereby  man  is  very  far  gone  from  original 
righteousness,  and  is  of  his  own  nature  inclined 
to  evil,  so  that  the  flesh  lusteth  always  contrary 
to  the  Spirit ;  and  therefore,  in  every  person  bom 
into  this  world,  it  deserveth  God's  wrath  and 
damnation." 

The  thirty-fifth  article  gives  sanction  to  the 
Homilies  in  the  following  words :  "  The  book  of 
Homilies  contains  a  good  and  wholesome  doc- 
trine, and  therefore  we  judge  them  to  be  read  in 
churches  by  ministers,  diligently  and  distinctly, 
that  they  may  be  understood  by  the  people." 
Let  us  then  see  how  they  set  forth  the  good  and 
wholesome,  though  lamentable  and  humbling 
doctrine  of  our  lost  estate. 

The  title  of  the  second  is,  "A  sermon  of  the 
misery  of  mankind,  and  of  his  condemnation  to 
death  everlasting  by  his  sin."  In  the  close  of 
it,  the  contents  are  summed  up  in  these  words: 
"  We  have  heard  how  evil  we  are  of  ourselves ; 
how  of  ourselves,  and  by  ourselves,  we  have  no 
goodness,  help,  or  salvation;  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, sin,  damnation,  and  death  everlasting." 

Our  Church  is  uniform  in  her  woeful  accounts 
of  man's  misery.  Hear  her  in  the  first  Homily  for 
Whitsunday :  "  Man  of  his  own  nature — since  the 
fall — is  fleshly  and  carnal,  corrupt  and  naught, 
sinful  and  disobedient  to  God,  without  any  spark 
of  goodness  in  him,  without  any  virtuous  or 
godly  motion,  only  given  to  evil  thoughts  and 
wicked  deeds." 

In  the  Homily  on  the  nativity  she  speaks  thus : 
"He — disobedient  man — was  now  cursed  and 


(82  AK  APPEAL  TO  [PART  I. 

abhorred ;  instead  of  the  image  of  God,  he  was 
now  become  the  image  of  the  devil,  the  bond- 
slave of  hell.  Altogether  spotted  and  defiled, 
he  seemed  to  be  nothing  else  but  a  lump  of  sin  ; 
and  therefore,  by  the  just  judgment  of  God,  he 
was  condemned  to  everlasting  death.  Thus,  in 
Adam  all  men  became  universally  mortal,  having 
in  themselves  nothing  but  everlasting  damnation 
of  body  and  soul."* 

The  same  doctrine  is  delivered  with  the  same 
plamness  in  the  second  part  of  the  Homily  on 
the  passion :  "  Adam  died  the  death,  that  is,  be- 
came mortal,  lost  the  favor  of  God,  and  was 
cast  out  of  paradise,  being  no  longer  a  citizen  of 
heaven,  but  a  firebrand  of  hell,  and  a  bond-slave 
of  the  devil."  And  St,  Paul  bears  witness,  that 
by  Adam's  offense  death  came  upon  all  men  to 
condemnation,  who  became  plain  reprobates,  and 
castaways,  being  perpetually  damned  to  the  ever- 
lasting pains  of  hell  fire. 

Agreeably  to  this,  we  are  taught,  in  the  second 
part  of  the  Homily  on  repentance,  that  "part  of 


•  Prejodiced  persons,  who,  instead  of  considering  the 
entire  system  oi  truth,  run  away  with  a  part  detached 
from  the  whole,  will  be  offendea  here,  as  if  our  Church 
"damned  every  body."  But  the  candid  reader  will  easily 
observe,  that  instead  of  dooming  any  one  to  tlestruction, 
she  only  declares,  that  the  Savior  finds  ail  men  in  a  state 
of  condemnation  and  misery,  where  they  would  eternally 
remain,  were  it  not  for  the  compassionate  equity  of  our 
gracious  God,  which  does  not  permit  him  to  sentence  to 
a  consciousness  of  eternal  torments  any  one  of  his  crea- 
tures, for  a  sin  of  which  they  never  were  personally  guilty; 
and  of  which,  consequently,  they  can  never  have  any  con- 
sciousness. 


PART  I.]  MATl'EB  OF  FACT.  28 

that  virtue  consists  in  an  unfeigned  acknowledg- 
ment of  our  sins  to  God,  whom,  by  them,  we 
have  so  grievously  oflfended,  that  if  he  should 
deal  with  us  according  to  his  justice,  we  deserve 
ft  tliousand  hells,  if  there  were  so  many." 

The  same  vein  of  wholesome,  though  un- 
pleasant doctrine,  runs  through  the  Liturgy  of 
9ur  Church.  She  opens  her  service  by  exhorting 
as  not  to  dissemble  nor  cloak  our  manifold  sins 
«.nd  wickedness.  She  acknowledges  in  her  con- 
fessions, that  we  have  erred,  and  strayed  from 
God's  ways,  like  lost  sheep — that  there  is  no 
health  in  us — that  we  are  miserable  sinners, 
miserable  offenders,  to  whom  our  sins  are  griev- 
ous ;  and  the  burden  of  them  is  intolerable. 

She  begins  her  baptismal  office  by  reminding 
us  that  all  men  are  conceived  and  born  in  sin. 
She  teaches  in  her  catechism  that  we  are  by  na- 
ture born  in  sin,  and  the  children  of  wrath.  She 
confesses  in  the  collect  before  the  general  thanks- 
giving, that  we  are  tied  and  bound  with  the 
chain  of  our  sins,  and  entreats  God  to  let  the 
pitifulness  of  his  great  mercy  loose  us ;  and  in 
her  suffrages  she  beseeches  him  to  have  mercy 
upon  us — to  spare  us,  and  make  speed  to  save 
us — a  language  that  can  suit  none  but  condemned 
sinners. 

Duly  sensible  of  our  extreme  danger,  till  we 
have  secured  an  interest  in  Christ,  at  the  grave 
she  supplicates  the  most  holy  God,  not  to  deliver 
us  into  the  bitter  pains  of  eternal  death ;  and  in 
the  Litany  she  beseeches  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
by  his  agony  and  bloody  sweat,  by  his  cross  and 


84  AN  APPEAL  TO  [pABT  II. 

passion,  to  deliver  us  from  his  wrath  and  ever- 
lasting damnation.  Thus  is  our  Church  every- 
where consistent  with  herself  and  with  the  ora- 
cles of  God,  in  representing  us  as  corrupt,  con- 
demned creatures  in  Adam  ;  till  we  are  penitent, 
absolved  believers  in  Jesus  Christ. 

The  doctrine  to  be  demonstrated  in  this  treatise 
being  thus  fully  stated,  in  the  consentaneous 
words  of  the  sacred  writers,  and  our  pious  re- 
formers, I  shall  close  this  part  by  an  appeal  to 
the  reader's  candor  and  common  sense.  If  such 
are  the  sentiments  of  our  Church,  are  those 
churchmen  reasonable,  who  intimate  that  all  the 
maintainers  of  them  are  either  her  open  or  secret 
enemies  ?  and  may  they  rank  with  modest,  hum- 
ble Christians,  who,  instead  of  the  self- abasing, 
Scripture  doctrine  here  laid  down,  boldly  substi- 
tute pompous,  pharisaic  descriptions  of  the  pres- 
ent dignity  and  rectitude  of  human  nature? 
Without  waiting  for  the  obvious  answer,  I  pass 
to  the  first  class  of  arguments,  on  which  the  truth 
of  this  mortifying  doctrine  is  established. 


SECOND  PART. 

As  no  man  is  bound  to  believe  what  is  con- 
trary to  common  sense;  if  the  above  stated 
doctrine  appear  irrational.  Scriptures,  Articles, 
Homilies,  and  Liturgy,  are  quoted  in  vain :  when 
men  of  parts  are  pressed  with  their  authority, 
they  start  from  it  as  an  imposition  on  their  rea- 


PART  II.]  MATTER  OF  PACT.  25 

son,  and  make  as  honorable  a  retreat  as  they 
possibly  can. 

Some,  to  extricate  themselves  at  once,  set 
the  Bible  aside,  as  full  of  incredible  assertions. 
Others,  with  more  modesty,  plead  that  the  Scrip- 
tures have  been  frequently  misunderstood,  and 
are  so  in  the  present  case.  They  put  grammai-, 
criticism,  and  common  sense  to  the  rack,  to 
show,  that  when  the  inspired  writers  say  the 
human  heart  is  desperately  wicked,  they  mean 
that  it  is  extremely  good ;  or  at  least  like  blank 
paper,  ready  to  receive  either  the  characters  of 
virtue  or  of  vice.  With  respect  to  the  testimony 
of  our  reformers,  they  would  have  you  to  under- 
stand, that  in  this  enlightened  age  we  must 
leave  their  harsh,  uncharitable  sentiments  to  the 
old  Puritans,  and  the  present  Methodists. 

That  such  objectors  may  subscribe  as  a  solemn 
truth,  what  they  have  hitherto  rejected  as  a  dan- 
gerous error,  and  that  humble  sinners  may  see 
the  propriety  of  a  heart-felt  repentance,  and  the 
absolute  need  of  an  almighty  Redeemer,  they 
are  here  presented  with  some  proofs  of  our  de- 
pravity, taken  from  the  astonishing  severity  of 
God's  dispensations  toward  mankind. 

AXIOM. 

If  we  consider  the  supreme  Being  as  creating 
a  .world  for  the  manifestation  of  his  glory,  the 
display  of  his  perfections,  and  the  communica- 
tion of  his  happiness  to  an  intelligent  creature, 
whom  he  would  attach  to  himself  by  the  strong- 
est ties  of  gratitude  and  love,  we  at  once  per- 


i§  AK  APPEAL  TO  [PART  H. 

ceire  that  he  never  could  form  this  earth  and 
man  in  their  present  disordered,  deplorable  con- 
dition. It  is  not  so  absurd  to  suppose  the  me- 
ridian sun  productive  of  darkness,  as  to  imagine 
that  infinite  goodness  ever  produced  any  kind  or 
degree  of  evil. 

Infinite  holiness  and  wisdom  having  assisted 
infinite  goodness  to  draw  the  original  plan  of  the 
world,  it  could  not  but  be  entirely  worthy  of 
its  glorious  Author,  absolutely  free  from  every 
moral  defilement  and  natural  disorder :  nor  could 
infinite  power  possibly  be  at  a  loss  to  execute 
what  the  other  divine  attributes  had  contrived. 
Therefore,  vmless  we  embrace  the  senseless  opin- 
ion of  the  Materialists,  who  deny  the  being  of 
a  God,  or  admit  the  ridiculous  creed  of  the 
Manichees,  who  adore  two  gods,  the  one  the  gra- 
cious author  of  all  the  good,  and  the  other  the 
mischievous  principle  of  all  the  evil  in  the  world, 
we  must  conclude  with  Moses,  that  every  thing 
which  God  made,  was  at  first  very  good ;  or,  in 
other  words,  that  order  and  beauty,  harmony 
and  happiness,  were  stamped  upon  every  part  of 
the  creation,  and  especially  on  man,  the  master- 
piece of  creating  power,  in  this  sublunary  world. 
On  this  axiom  I  raise  my 

FIRST  ARGUMENT. 

Does  not  the  natural  state  of  the  earth  cast  a 
light  upon  the  spiritual  condition  of  its  inhabit- 
ants ?  Amidst  a  thousand  beauties,  that  indicate 
what  it  was  when  God  pronounced  it  very  good, 
and,  as  the  original  also  imports,  extremely  beau- 


PART  II.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  27 

tiful ;  amidst  the  elegant  and  grand  ruins,  which 
form  the  variety  of  our  smiling  landscapes  and 
romantic  prospects;  can  an  impartial  inquirer 
help  taking  notice  of  a  thousand  striking  proofs, 
that  a  multiplied  curse  rests  upon  this  globe ; 
and  that  man,  who  inhabits  it,  is  now  disgraced 
by  the  God  of  nature  and  providence? 

Here,  deceitful  morasses,  or  faithless  quick- 
sands, obstruct  our  way :  there,  miry,  impassable 
roads,  or  inhospitable,  sandy  deserts,  endanger 
our  life.  In  one  place,  we  are  stopped  by  stu- 
pendous chains  of  rocky  mountains,  broken  into 
frightful  precipices  or  hideous  caverns:  and  in 
another,  we  meet  with  ruinous  valleys,  cut  deep 
by  torrents  and  waterfalls,  whose  tremendous 
roar  stuns  the  astonished  traveler.  Many  of 
the  hills  are  stony,  rude,  and  waste;  and  most 
of  the  plains  are  covered  over  with  strata  of 
barren  sand,  stiff  clay,  or  infertile  gravel. 

Thorns,  thistles,  and  noxious  weeds,*  grow 
spontaneously  every-where,  and  yield  a  trouble- 
some, never-failing  crop :  while  the  best  soil, 
carefully  plowed  by  the  laborious  husbandman, 
and  sown  with  precious  seed,  frequently  repays 
his  expensive  toil  with  light  sheaves,  or  a  blasted 
harvest. 

*  Those  who  oppose  the  doctrine  of  the  fall,  say  that 
"weeds  have  their  use."  I  grant  ihey  are  serviceable  to 
thousands  of  poor  people,  who  earn  their  bread  by  pulling 
the  general  nuisance  out  of  our  fields  and  gardens;  but 
till  our  otrjectors  have  proved  that  thistles  are  more  useful, 
and  therefore  grow  more  spontaneously,  and  multiply  more 
abundantly,  than  com,  we  shall  discover  the  badness  of 
their  cause  through  the  slightness  of  their  objection. 


.518  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  II. 

Consider  that  immense  part  of  the  globe, 
which  Hes  between  the  tropics ;  it  is  parched  up 
by  the  scorching  beams  of  the  vertical  sun: 
there,  the  tawny  inhabitants  fan  themselves  in 
vain:  they  pant,  they  melt,  they  faint  on  the 
sultry  couch;  and,  like  the  birds  of  night,  dare 
not  appear  abroad,  till  evening  shades  temper 
the  insufferable  blaze  of  day.  View  the  frozen 
countries  around  the  poles:  in  summer,  the  sun 
just  glances  upon  them  by  his  feeble,  horizontal 
rays  :  in  winter  he  totally  deserts  them,  and  they 
lie  bound  with  rigorous  frosts,  and  buried  in  con- 
tinual night.  There,  the  torpid  inhabitants  know 
neither  harvest  nor  vintage ;  the  ocean  seems  a 
boundless  plain  of  ice,  and  the  continent  im- 
mense hills  of  snow. 

The  temperate  zones  are,  indeed,  blessed  with 
milder  climates;  but  even  here,  how  irregular 
are  the  seasons!  To  go  no  farther  than  this 
favored  island,  what  means  the  strange  fore- 
sight, by  which  the  ice  of  January  is  laid  in  to 
temper  the  ardors  of  July ;  and  the  burning 
mineral  is  stored  in  June,  to  mitigate  the  frost  in 
December?  But,  notwithstanding  these  pre- 
cautions, what  continual  complaints  are  heard 
about  the  intenseness  of  the  heat,  the  severity 
of  the  cold,  or  the  sudden  pernicious  change 
from  the  one  to  the  other ! 

Let  us  descend  to  particulars.  In  winter,  how 
often  do  drifts  of  snow  bury  the  starved  sheep, 
and  entomb  the  frozen  traveler!  In  summer, 
how  frequently  do  dreadful  storms  of  hail  cut 
down,  or  incessant  showers  of  rain  wash  away, 


PART  II.]  MATTBR  OF  FACT.  29 

the  fruits  of  the  earth!  Perhaps,  to  complete 
the  desolation,  water  pours  down  from  all  the 
neighboring  hills ;  and  the  swelling  streams, 
joining  with  overflowing  rivers,  cause  sudden 
inundations,  lay  waste  the  richest  pastures,  and 
carry  oft"  the  swimming  flocks ;  while  the  frighted 
inhabitants*  of  the  vale  either  retire  to  the  top 
of  their  deluged  houses,  or,  by  the  timely  assist- 
ance of  boats,  fly  from  the  imminent  and  increas- 
ing danger. 

If  heaven  seems  to  dissolve  into  water  in  one 
place,  in  another  it  is  like  brass ;  it  yields  neither 
fruitful  rains  nor  cooling  dews  :  the  earth  is  like 
iron  under  it,  and  the  perishing  cattle  loll  out 
their  parched  tongues,  where  they  once  drank 
the  refreshing  stream.  Suppose  a  few  happy 
districts  -  escape  these  dreadful  scourges  for  a 
number  of  years,  are  they  not  at  last  visited  with 
redoubled  severity?  And,  while  abused  afilu- 
ence  vanishes  as  a  dream  before  the -intolerable 
dearth,  do  not  a  starving,f  riotous  populace, 
leave  their  wretched  cottages,  to  plunder  the 
houses  of  their  wealthy  neighbors,  desperately 
venturing  the  gallows  for  a  morsel  of  bread  ? 

When  some,  secure  from  the  attacks  of  water, 
quietly  enjoy  the  comforts  of  plenty,  fire  perhaps 
surprises  them  in  an  instant:  they  awake,  in- 
volved in  smoke,  and  surrounded  by  crackling 
flames,  through  which — if  it  is  not  too  late — they 
fly  naked  at  the  hazard  of  their  neck,  and  think 

*  This  was  the  case  of  several  families  in  the  author's 
parish,  November,  1770. 
f  This  happened  some  years  ago  in  this  neighborhood. 


%0  -iLK  APPEAL  TO  [pART  11, 

themselves  happy  if,  while  they  leave  behind 
them  young  children  or  aged  parents,  burning  in 
the  blaze  of  all  their  goods,  they  escape  them- 
selves with  dislocated  joints  or  broken  bones. 
Their  piercing  shrieks,  and  the  fall  of  their  house, 
seem  to  portend  a  general  conflagration;  loud 
confusion  increases,  disastrous  ruin  spreads ;  and 
perhaps,  before  they  can  be  stopped,  a  street,  a 
suburb,  a  whole  city,  is  reduced  to  ashes. 

Turn  your  imagination  from  the  smoking  ruins, 
to  fix  it  upon  the  terrifying  effects  of  the  air, 
agitated  into  roaring  tempests  and  boisterous 
hurricanes;  before  their  impetuous  blast  the 
masts  of  ships  and  cedars  of  Lebanon  are  like 
broken  reeds;  men  of  war  and  solid  buildings 
like  the  driven  chaff.  Here,  they  strip  the  groan- 
ing forests,  tear  the  bosom  of  the  earth,  and  ob- 
scure the  sky  with  clouds  of  whirling  sand :  and 
there  they  plow  up  the  liquid  foaming  plains,  and, 
with  sportive  fury,  turn  up  mountains  for  ridges, 
or  cut  valleys  instead  of  furrows.  As  they  pass 
along,  the  confounded  elements  dreadfully  roar 
under  the  mighty  scourge,  the  rolling  sea  tosses 
herself  up  to  heaven,  and  the  soUd  land  is  swept 
with  the  besom  of  destruction. 

To  highten  the  horror  of  the  scene,  thunder, 
the  majestic  voice  of  an  angry  God,  and  the 
awful  artillery  of  heaven,  burats  into  loud  claps 
from  the  lowering  sky.  Distant  hills  reverberate 
and  increase  the  alarming  sound,  and,  with  rock- 
ing edifices,  declare  to  man  that  vengeance  be- 
longeth  to  God.  And,  to  enforce  the  solemn 
warning,  repeated  flashes  of  lightning,  with  hor- 


PART  II.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  31 

rible  glare,  dazzle  his  eyes,  and  with  forked  fires 
strike  consternation  into  his  breast,  if  they  do 
not  actually  strike  him  dead  in  the  midst  of  his 
shattered  habitation. 

Nor  doth  heaven  alone  dart  destructive  fires ; 
earth — our  mother  earth — as  if  it  were  not 
enough  frequently  to  corrupt  the  atmosphere. by 
pestilential  vapors,  borrows  the  assistance  of  the 
devouring  elements,  to  terrify  and  scourge  her 
guilty  children.  By  sudden  frightful  chasms, 
and  the  mouth  of  her  burning  mountains,  she 
vomits  clouds  of  smoke,  sulphureous  flames, 
and  calcined  rocks ;  she  emits  streams  of  melted 
minerals,  covers  the  adjacent  plains  with  boiling 
fiery  lavas;  and,  as  if  she  wanted  to  ease  her- 
self of  the  burden  of  her  inhabitants,  suddenly 
rises  against  them,  and  in  battles  of  shaking,  at 
once  crushes,  destroys,  and  buries  them  in  heaps 
of  ruins. 

These  astonishing  scenes,  like  a  bloody  battle 
that  is  seen  at  a  distance,  may  indeed  entertain 
us.  They  may  amuse  our  imagination,  when  in 
a  peaceful  apartment  we  behold  them  beautifully 
represented  by  the  pen  of  a  Virgil,  or  the  pencil 
of  a  Raphael.  But  to  be  in  the  midst  of  them, 
as  thousands  are,  sooner  or  later,  is  inexpressibly 
dreadful.  It  is  actually  to  see  the  forerunner 
of  Divine  vengeance,  and  hear  the  shaking  of 
God's  destructive  rod.  It  is  to  behold  at  once 
a  lively  emblem  and  an  awful  pledge  of  that  fire 
and  brimstone,  storm  and  tempest,  which  the 
righteous  Governor  of  the  world  will  rain  upon 
the  ungodly ;  when  the  heavens  shall  pass  away 


32  AN  APPEAL  TO  [pART  II. 

with  a  great  noise,  the  elements  shall  melt  with 
fervent  heat,  and  the  earth,  with  the  works  that 
are  therein,  shall  be  burned  up. 

Now,  as  reason  loudly  declares  that  the  God 
of  order,  justice,  and  goodness  could  never  es- 
tablish and  continue  this  fearful  course  of  things, 
but  to  punish  the  disorders  of  the  moral  world 
by  those  of  the  natural,  we  must  conclude  that 
man  is  guilty,  from  the  alarming  tokens  of  Di- 
vine displeasure,  which  sooner  or  later  are  so 
conspicuous  in  every  part  of  the  habitable  globe 

SECOND  ARGUMENT. 

We  have  taken  a  view  of  the  residence  of 
mankind :  let  us  now  behold  them  entering  upon 
the  disordered  scene.  And  here  reason  informs 
us,  that  some  mystery  of  iniquity  lies  hid  under 
the  loathsome,  painful,  and  frequently  mortal  cir- 
cumstances which  accompany  their  birth.  For 
it  can  never  be  imagined,  that  a  righteous  and 
good  God  would  suffer  innocent  and  pure  crea- 
tures to  come  into  the  world  skilled  in  no  lan- 
guage but  that  of  misery,  venting  itself  in  bitter 
cries  or  doleful  accents. 

It  is  a  matter  of  fact,  that  infants  generally 
return  their  first  breath  with  a  groan,  and  salute 
the  light  with  the  voice  of  sorrow:  generally,  I 
say,  for  sometimes  they  are  born  half  dead,  and 
can  not,  without  the  utmost  difficulty,  be  brought 
to  breathe  and  groan.  But  all  are  born  at  the 
hazard  of  their  lives;  for  while  some  can  not 
press  into  the  land  of  the  living,  without  being 
dangerously  bruised,   others   have    their  tender 


PART  II.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  38 

bones  dislocated.  Some  are  almost  strangled; 
and  it  is  the  horrible  fate  of  others,  to  be  forced 
into  the  world  by  instruments  of  torture  ;  having 
their  skull  bored  through  or  broken  to  pieces ; 
or  their  quivering  limbs  cut  or  torn  off  from  the 
unfortunate  trunk.     Again: 

While  some  appear  on  the  stage  of  life  em- 
barrassed with  superfluous  parts,  others,  unac- 
countably mutilated,  want  those  which  are  nec- 
essary. And  what  is  more  terrible  still,  a  few, 
whose  hideous,  misshapen  bodies  seem  calculated 
to  represent  the  deformity  of  a  fallen  soul,  rank 
among  frightful  monsters;  and  to  terminate  the 
horror  of  the  parents,  are  actually  smothered 
and  destroyed. 

The  spectators,  it  is  true,  concerned  for  the 
honor  of  mankind,  frequently  draw  a  vail  over 
these  shocking  and  bloody  scenes ;  but  a  philos- 
opher will  find  them  out,  and  will  rationally  infer 
that  the  deplorable  and  dangerous  manner  in 
which  mankind  are  born,  proves  them  to  be  de- 
generate fallen  creatures.* 


*  Logicians  will  excuse  the  author,  if  he  prefers  the 
coinnion,  unafTeoted  manner  of  proposing  his  arguments, 
to  the  formal  method  of  the  schools.  But  they  may  easily 
try  his  enthymenies  by  giving  them  the  form  of  syllogisms, 
thus: 

I.  Argument.  If  the  rod  of  God  is  fearfully  shaken 
over  this  globe,  the  disordered  habitation  of  mankind,  it  is  a 
sign  they  are  under  his  displeasure. 

But  God's  rod  is  fearfully  shaken  over  this  globe,  etc. 
Therefore,  mankind  are  under  his  displeasure. 

II.  Argument.  A  pure  and  innocent  creature  can  not  be 
born  under  such  and  such  deplorable  circumstances. 

But  man  is  born  under  such  and  such  deplorable  cir- 

3 


84  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  11. 

THraD  ARGCTMENT. 

If  we  let  our  thoughts  ascend  from  the  little 
suflFerers,  to  the  mothers  that  bear  them,  we  shall 
find  another  dreadful  proof  of  the  Divine  dis- 
pleasure, and  of  our  natural  depravity.  Does 
not  a  good  master,  much  more  a  gracious  God, 
delight  in  the  prosperity  and  happiness  of  his 
faithful  servants  ?  If  mankind  were  naturally  in 
their  Creator's  favor,  would  he  not  order  the 
fruit  of  the  womb  to  drop  from  it  without  any 
more  inconveniency  than  ripe  vegetables  fall 
from  the  opening  husk,  or  full-grown  fruit  from 
the  disburdened  tree  ?  But  how  widely  different 
is  the  case ! 

Fix  your  attention  on  pregnant  mothers  :  see 
their  disquietude  and  fears.  Some  go  before- 
hand through  an  imaginary  travail,  almost  as 
painful  to  the  mind  as  the  real  labor  is  to  the 
body.  The  dreaded  hour  comes  at  last.  Good 
God !  What  lingering,  what  tearing  pains : 
what  redoubled  throes,  what  killing  agonies  at- 
tend it!  See  the  curse — or  rather  see  it  not. 
Let  the  daughter  of  her  who  tasted  the  forbid- 
den fruit  without  the  man,  drink  that  bitter  cup 
without  him.  Fly  from  the  mournful  scene,  fly 
to  distant  apartments ;  but  in  vain,  the  din  of  sor- 
row pursues  and  overtakes  you  there. 

A  child  of  man  is  at  the  point  of  being  born  ; 
his  tortured  mother  proclaims  the  news  in  the 
bitterest  accents.      Thoy  increase  with   her  in- 


cnmstances.    Therefore    man  is  not  a  pure  and  innocent 
creature. 


PART  n.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  35 

creasing  agony.  Sympathize  and  pray  while 
she  suffers  and  groans — perhaps  while  she  suf- 
fers and  dies — for  it  is  possibly  her  dying  groan 
that  reaches  your  ear.  Perhaps  nature  is  spent 
in  the  hard  travail ;  her  son  is  born,  and,  with 
Jacob's  wife,  she  closes  her  languid  eye  and  ex- 
pires. Perhaps  the  instruments  of  death  are 
upon  her;  the  keen  steel  mangles  her  delicate 
frame ;  as  Caesar's  mother,  she  generously  suf- 
fers her  body  to  be  opened,  that  her  unborn 
child  may  not  be  torn  from  her  in  pieces ;  and 
the  fertile  tree  is  unnaturally  cut  down,  that  its 
fruit  may  be  safely  gathered. 

Perhaps  neither  mother  nor  child  can  be  saved, 
and  one  grave  is  going  to  deprive  a  distracted 
mortal  of  a  beloved  Rachel,  and  a  long-expected 
Benjamin.  If  this  is  the  case,  O  earth,  earth, 
earth,  conceal  these  slain,  cover  their  blood,  and 
detain  in  thy  dark  bosom  the  fearful  curse  that 
brought  them  there.  Vain  wish!  Too  active 
to  be  confined  in  thy  deepest  vaults,  it  ranges 
through  the  world;  with  unrelentinsf  fierceness 
It  pursues  trembling  mothers,  and  forces  them 
to  lift  up  their  voice  for  speedy  relief;  though 
varied  according  to  the  accents  of  a  hundred 
languages,  it  is  the  same  voice — that  of  the  bit- 
terest anguish  ;  and  while  it  is  reverberated  from 
hamlet  to  hamlet,  from  city  to  city,  it  strikes  the 
unprejudiced  inquirer,  and  makes  him  confess, 
that  these  clouds  of  imbribed  witnesses,  by  their 
loud,  consentaneous  evidence,  impeach  Si7i,  the 
tormentor  of  the  woman,  and  murderer  of  her 
offspring. 


36  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  11. 

'  But  suppose  the  case  is  not  so  fatal,  and  she 
is  at  last  delivered ;  her  labor  may  be  over,  yet 
not  her  pain  and  danger;  a  lingering  weakness 
may  carry  her  slowly  to  her  grave.  If  she  re- 
covers, she  may  be  a  mother,  and  yet  unable  to 
act  a  mother's  part.  Her  pining  child  sucks  her 
disordered  breast  in  vain ;  either  the  springs  of 
his  balmy  food  are  dried  up,  or  they  overflow 
with  a  putrid  loathsome  fluid,  and  excruciating 
ulcers  cause  the  soft  lips  of  the  infant  to  appear 
terrible  as  the  edge  of  the  sword. 

If  she  happily  escapes  this  common  kind  of 
distress,  yet  she  may  date  the  beginning  of  some 
chronical  disease  from  her  dangerous  lying-in; 
and  in  consequence  of  her  hard  wrestling  for  the 
blessing  of  a  child,  may,  with  the  patriarch,  go 
halting  all  her  days.  How  sensible  are  the  marks 
of  Divine  indignation  in  all  these  scenes  of  sor- 
row !  and  consequently,  how  visible  our  sinfulness 
and  guilt ! 

Nor  can  the  justness  of  the  inference  be  de- 
nied, under  pretense  that  the  females  of  other 
animals,  which  neither  do  nor  can  sin,  bring  forth 
their  young  with  pain,  as  well  as  women.  For, 
if  we  take  a  view  of  the  whole  earth,  we  shall 
not  see  any  females,  except  the  daughters  of 
Eve,  who  groan  under  a  periodical  disorder  that 
entails  languor  and  pain,  weakness  and  mortal 
diseases,  on  their  most  blooming  days.  Nor  do 
we  in  general  find  any  that  are  delivered  of  their 
oflispring  with  half  the  sorrow  and  danger  of 
women.  These  two  remarkable  circumstances 
loudly  call  upon  us  to  look  for  the  cause  of  the 


PART  II.]  MATTER  OF  FACT,  87 

sorrow  which  attends  the  delivery  of  female  ani- 
mals, where  that  sorrow  is  most  sensibly  felt; 
and  to  admire  the  perfect  agreement  that  sub- 
sists between  the  observations  of  natural  philos- 
ophers, and  the  assertion  of  the  most  ancient 
historian.  Gen.  iii,  16. 

FOURTH  ARGUMENT. 

If  we  advert  to  mankind,  even  before  they 
burst  the  womb  of  their  tortured  mothers,  they 
afford  us  a  new  proof  of  their  total  degeneracy. 
For  reason  dictates,  that  if  they  were  not  con- 
ceived in  sin,  the  Father  of  mercies  could  not, 
consistently  with  his  goodness  and  justice,  com- 
mand the  cold  hand  of  death  to  nip  them  in  the 
unopened  or  just  opened  bud.  This,  neverthe- 
less, happens  every  hour.  Who  can  number 
the  early  miscarriages  of  the  womb?  How 
many  millions  of  miserable  embryos  feel  the 
pangs  of  death  before  those  of  birth,  and  pre- 
posterously turn  the  fruitful  womb  into  a  living 
grave  ?  And  how  many  millions  more  of  wretched 
infants  escape  the  dangers  of  their  birthday,  and 
salute  the  troublesome  light,  only  to  take  their 
untimely  leave  of  it,  after  languishing  a  few 
days  on  the  rack  of  a  convulsive  or  torturing 
disorder?  I  ask  again,  would  a  good  and 
righteous  God  seal  the  death-warrant  of  such 
multitudes  of  his  unborn  or  newly-born  crea- 
tures, if  their  natural  depravity  did  not  render 
them  proper  subjects  of  dissolution? 

It  is  true,  the  young  beasts  suffer  and  die,  as 
well  as  infants ;  but  it  is  only  because  they  are 


88  AN  APPEAL  TO  [pART  H. 

involved  in  our  misery.  They  partake  of  it,  as 
the  attendants  of  a  noble  traitor  share  in  his  de- 
served ruin.  Sin,  that  inconceivably-virulent  and 
powerful  evil,  drew  down  God's  righteous  curse 
upon  all  that  was  created  for  man's  use,  as  well 
as  upon  man  himself.  Hence  only  springs  the 
degeneracy  and  death  that  turn  beasts  to  one 
promiscuous  dust  with  mankind.  Compare  Gen. 
iii,  17 ;  Rom.  v,  12,  viii,  22.  We  may  then  justly 
infer  from  the  sufferings  and  death  of  still-bom 
or  new-born  children,  that  man  is  totally  degen- 
erate, and  liable  to  destruction  even  from  his 
mother's  womb. 

FIFTH  ARGUMENT. 

But  take  your  leave  of  the  infant  corpse,  al- 
ready buried  in  the  womb,  or  deposited  in  a 
coffin  of  a  span  long ;  fix  your  attention  on  the 
healthy,  sucking  child.  See  him  stupidly  staring 
in  his  nurse's  lap,  or  awkwardly  passing  through 
childhood  to  manhood.  How  visible  is  his  de- 
generacy in  every  stage ! 

Part  of  the  Divine  image,  in  which  he  was 
made  in  Adam,  consisted  in  purity,  power,  and 
knowledge;  but  now,  he  is  naturally  the  least 
cleanly,  as  well  as  the  most  helpless  and  igno- 
rant of  all  animals.  Yes,  if  the  reader  could 
forgive  the  indelicacy  of  the  assertion,  for  the 
sake  of  its  truth,  I  would  venture  to  show,  that 
there  is  no  comparison  between  the  cleanliness 
of  the  little  active  animals,  which  suck  the  filthy 
swine,  and  of  helpless  infants,  who  suck  the 
purer   breasts  of   their   tender  mothers.     But, 


PART  n.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  39 

casting  a  vail  over  the  dribbling  loathsome  little 
creatures,  without  fear  of  being  contradicted,  I 
aver  that  the  young  of  those  brutes,  which  are 
stupid  to  a  proverb,  know  their  dams,  and  follow 
them  as  soon  as  they  are  dropped ;  while  infants 
are  months  without  taking  any  particular  notice 
of  their  parents,  and  without  being  able,  I  shall  not 
say  to  follow  them,  but  even  to  bear  the  weight 
of  their  swaddled  body,  or  stand  upon  their  tot- 
tering legs. 

With  reference  to  the  knowledge  necessary  for 
the  support  of  animal  life,  it  is  undeniable  that 
brutes  have  greatly  the  advantage  of  mankind. 
Fowls  and  fishes,  immediately,  and  with  amazing 
sagacity,  single  out  their  proper  nourishment, 
among  a  thousand  useless  and  noxious  things; 
but  infants  put  indifferently  to  their  mouths  all 
that  comes  to  their  hand,  whether  it  be  food  or 
poison,  a  coral  or  a  knife ;  and  what  is  more  as- 
tonishing still,  grown-up  persons  scarce  ever 
attain  to  the  knowledge  of  the  quantity  or 
quality  of  the  meat  and  drink  which  are  most 
suitable  to  their  constitutions. 

All  disordered  dogs  fix  at  once  upon  the  salu- 
tary vegetable  that  can — in  some  cases — relieve 
their  distress;  but  many  physicians,  even  after 
several  years'  study  and  practice,  hurt,  and  some- 
times kill  their  patients,  by  improper  medicines. 
Birds  of  passage,  by  mere  instinct,  find  the  north 
and  south  more  readily  than  mariners  by  the 
compass.  Untaught  spiders  weave  their  webs, 
and  uninstructed  bees  make  their  combs  to  the 
greatest  perfection ;   but  fallen  man  must  serve 


^4$  AN  APPSAIi  TO  [part  U. 

a  tedious  apprenticeship  to  learn  his  own  busi- 
ness; and  with  all  the  help  of  masters,  tools, 
and  patterns,  seldom  proves  an  ingenious  artist. 

Again:  other  animals  are  provided  with  a 
natural  covering,  that  answers  the  double  end  of 
usefulness  and  ornament;  but  indigent  man  is 
obliged  to  borrow  from  plants,  beasts,  and  worms, 
the  materials  with  which  he  hides  his  nakedness, 
or  defends  his  feebleness ;  and  a  great  part  of 
his  short  life  is  spent  in  providing,  or  putting  on 
and  oft"  garments,  the  gaudy  tokens  of  his  shame, 
or  ragged  badges  of  his  fall. 

Are  not  these  plain  proofs  that  man,  who, 
according  to  his  superior  rank  and  primitive 
excellency,  should  in  all  things  have  the  pre- 
eminence, is  now  a  degraded  being,  cursed  for 
his  apostasy  with  native  uncleanliness,  helpless- 
ness, ignorance,  and  nakedness,  above  all  other 
animals  ? 

SIXTH  ARGUMENT. 

Man's  natural  ignorance,  great  as  it  is,  might, 
nevertheless,  be  overlooked,  if  he  had  but  the 
right  knowledge  of  his  Creator.  But,  alas !  the 
holy  and  righteous  God  judiciously  withdraws 
himself  from  his  unholy,  apostate  creature. 
Man  is  not  properly  acquainted  with  him  in 
whom  he  lives,  and  moves,  and  hath  his  being. 
This  humbling  truth  may  be  demonstrated  by 
the  following  observations : 

God  is  infinitely  perfect;  all  the  perfection 
which  is  found  in  the  most  exalted  creatures,  is 
but  the  reflection  of  the  transcendent  eflfulgence 


FART  II.]  MATTER  OF  PACT.  41 

belonging  to  that  glorious  Sun  of  spiritual  beauty; 
it  is  but  the  surface  of  the  unfathomable  depths 
of  goodness  and  loveliness,  which  regenerate 
souls  discover  in  that  boundless  ocean  of  all 
excellence.  If,  therefore,  men  saw  God,  they 
could  far  less  help  being  struck  with  holy  awe, 
overwhelmed  with  pleasing  wonder,  and  ravished 
with  delightful  admiration,  than  a  man  born  blind, 
and  restored  to  sight  in  the  blaze  of  a  summer's 
day,  could  help  being  transported  at  the  glory 
of  the  new  and  unexpected  scene.  Could  we 
but  see  virtue  in  all  her  beauty,  said  a  heathen, 
she  would  ravish  our  hearts.*  How  much  greater 
would  our  ravishments  be,  if  we  were  indulged 
with  a  clear,  immediate  discovery  of  the  divine 
beauty — the  eternal  origin  of  all  virtue — the  ex- 
uberant fountain  of  all  perfection  and  delight? 
But,  alas !  how  few  thus  behold,  know,  and  ad- 
mire God,  may  easily  be  seen  by  the  impious  or 
vain  conduct  of  mankind. 

If  a  multitude  of  men  ingenuously  confess 
they  know  not  the  king ;  if  they  take  his  statue 
or  one  of  his  attendants  for  him ;  or  if  they  doubt 
whether  there  be  a  king,  or  sport  with  his  name 
and  laws  in  his  presence,  we  reasonably  con- 
clude that  they  neither  see  nor  know  the  royal 
person.  And  is  not  this  the  case  of  the  super- 
stitious, who,  like  the  Athenians,  worship  an 
unknown  God?  Of  idolaters,  who  bow  to  fa- 
vorite mortals,  or  lifeless  images,  as  to  the  true 
God  ?     Of  infidels,  who  doubt  the  very  being  of 

*  Si  virtus  conspiceretur  oculig,  mirabiles  amores  exci 
taret  sui. — Cic. 


42  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  II. 

a  God  ?  And  of  open  sinners,  the  bulk  of  man- 
kind, who  live  every- where  as  if  there  was  none? 

Our  natural  ignorance  of  God  manifests  itself 
still  more  evidently  by  the  confessions  both  of 
real  and  nominal  Christians,  The  former,  before 
they  knew  God,  and  were  admitted  to  behold 
his  glory  shining  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ,  bit- 
terly complained  as  Isaiah,  Verily  thou  art  a  God 
that  hidest  thyself;  or  mournfully  asked  with 
David,  How  long  wilt  thou  hide  thy  face  from 
me  ?  It  is  plain,  then,  that  by  nature  they  were 
as  others,  without  God  (practical  Atheists)  in  the 
world,  and  have  as  much  reason  as  St.  Paul  to 
declare  that  the  world  by  wisdom  knew  not  God. 

As  for  nominal  Christians,  though  they  daily 
pray  that  the  fellowship  of  the  Holy  Ghost  may 
be  with  us  all,  it  is  evident  they  are  utter  strangers 
to  communion  with  God  by  his  Holy  Spirit.  For 
if  we  affirm  that  he  blesses  his  children  with  a 
spiritual  discovery  of  his  presence,  and  mani- 
fests himself  to  them  as  he  doth  not  to  the  world, 
they  say  we  are  mad,  or  call  us  enthusiasts. 
This  behavior  shows,  beyond  all  confessions, 
that  they  are  totally  unacquainted  with  the  light 
of  God's  countenance;  for  what  greater  proof 
can  a  blind  man  give,  that  he  has  no  knowledge 
of  the  sun,  than  to  suspect  his  neighbor  of  lunacy 
for  affirming  that  sunshine  is  a  delightful  reality  ? 

From  this  moral  demonstration  of  our  natural 
ignorance  of  God,  I  draw  the  following  conclu- 
sion: If  the  Lord,  who  is  a  mild  and  conde- 
scending King  to  all  his  loyal  subjects,  a  Father 
full  of  endearing  and  tender  love  to  all  his  duti- 


PART  11.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  48 

ful  children,  hides  his  face  from  mankind  in  a 
natural  state,  and  if  what  little  they  know  of 
him  is  only  by  conjecture,  hearsay,  or  inference,* 
it  is  a  proof  that  they  are  under  his  displeasure ; 
and,  consequently,  that  they  are  rebellious,  fallen 
creatures. 

For,  what  but  rebellion  could  thus  separate 
between  beings  so  nearly  related  as  an  infinitely- 
gracious  Creator  and  favorite  creatures,  whose 
soul  is,  according  to  a  heathen,  divince  particula 
aurce,  and,  according  to  Moses,  the  very  breath 
of  God  ?  We  may  then  rationally  conclude  with 
the  evangelical  prophet,  that  our  iniquities  have 
separated  between  us  and  our  God,  and  that  our 
sins  have  hid  his  face  from  us,  eclipsed  the  Sun 
of  righteousness,  and  brought  such  darkness  on 
our  souls,  that  by  nature  we  know  neither  what 
we  are,  nor  what  we  should  be :  neither  whence 
we  come,  nor  whither  we  are  going :  neither  the 
grand  business  we  have  to  do,  nor  the  danger 
that  attends  our  leading  it  undone. 

SEVENTH  ARGUMENT. 

If  by  nature  mankind  know  not  the  Lord  to 
be  their  God,  is  it  surprising  that  beasts  should 
not  know  mankind  to  be  their  lords?  Never- 
theless, reason  agrees  with  Scripture  in  main- 
taining that  man,  by  far  the  noblest  work  of  God 
here  below,  should,  according  to  the  reason  and 

*  This  is  the  knowledge  of  God  mentioned  Rom.  i,  21. 
It  is  sufficient  to  leave  without  excuse  those  who  do  not 
improve  it,  till  they  attain  to  the  saving  knowledge  men- 
tioned John  xvii,  3;  1  John  v,  20. 


44  AN  APPEAL  TO  [pART  II. 

fitness  of  things,  bear  rule  over  all  the  sublunary 
creation.  But,  alas!  even  in  this  respect,  how- 
ls the  crown  fallen  from  his  head !  Inferior  ani- 
mals have  as  little  regard  for  him  as  he  has  for 
his  God. 

Notwithstanding  his  artful  contrivances,  greedy 
birds  and  mischievous  beasts  eat  up,  trample 
down,  or  destroy  part  of  the  fruit  of  his  rural 
labor.  In  warmer  climes,  armies  of  locusts, 
more  terrible  than  hosts  of  men,  frequently 
darken  the  air,  or  cover  the  ground,  and  equally 
mock  at  human  power  and  craft.  Wherever 
they  light,  all  verdure  disappears,  and  the  sum- 
mer's fruitfulness  is  turned  into  wintry  desolation. 

If  locusts  do  not  reach  this  happy  island,  cat- 
erpillars, and  a  variety  of  other  seemingly-in- 
significant, but  really-formidable  insects,  make 
a  more  constant,  though  less  general,  attack 
upon  our  trees  and  gardens.  In  vain  are  they 
destroyed  by  millions — they  can  not  be  fully 
conquered;  and  the  yearly  returning  plague 
forces  the  considerate  spectator  to  acknowledge 
the  finger  of  a  sin-avenging  Providence. 

Happy  would  it  be  for  man  if  rebellious  ani- 
mals were  satisfied  with  the  produce  of  his  fields 
and  orchards ;  but,  alas !  they  thirst  after  his 
blood,  and  attack  his  person.  Lions,  tigers, 
rattlesnakes,  crocodiles,  and  sharks,  whenever 
they  have  an  opportunity,  impetuously  attack, 
furiously  tear,  and  greedily  devour  him.  And 
what  is  more  astonishing,  the  basest  reptiles  are 
not  afraid  to  breed  in  his  stomach,  to  live  in  his 
very  bowels,  and  to  consimie  his  inward  parts; 


PART  n.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  45 

while  swarms  of  flying,  leaping,  or  creeping  in- 
sects, too  vile  to  be  named-^but  not  to  humble 
a  proud  apostate — have  the  insolence  to  fix  upon 
his  skin,  and,  by  piercing  or  furrowing  his  flesh, 
suck  his  blood,  and  feast  upon  him  from  his 
cradle  to  his  grave. 

Domestic  animals,  it  is  true,  do  man  excellent 
service ;  but  is  it  not  because  he  either  forces  or 
bribes  them  to  it,  by  continual  labor  and  expense, 
with  which  he  breaks  and  maintains  them  ?  What 
business  have  multitudes  of  men,  but  to  serve 
the  drudges  of  mankind  ?  What  are  smiths,  far- 
riers, farmers,  servants,  grooms,  hostlers,  etc., 
but  the  slaves  of  brutes — washing,  currying, 
shoeing,  feeding,  and  waiting  upon  them  both 
by  day  and  by  night? 

And  yet,  notwithstanding  the  prerogative 
granted  to  Noah's  piety.  Gen.  ix,  2,  and  the  care 
taken  of  domestic  animals,  do  they  not  rebel  as 
often  as  they  dare?  Here  sheep,  deemed  the 
quietest  of  all,  run  astray,  or  break  into  the  fields 
of  a  litigious  neighbor:  there,  the  furious  bull 
pursues  and  gores,  or  the  raging  dog  sets  iipon 
the  inoffensive  traveler.  To-day  you  read  that 
an  impetuous,  foaming  steed,  hath  hurried  away, 
thrown  off,  and  dragged  along  his  unfortunate 
master,  whose  blood,  sprinkling  the  dust,  and 
brains  dashed  upon  the  stones,  direct  the  searclx 
of  liis  disconsolate  friend :  and  to-morrow,  you 
may  hear  that  a  vicious  horse  has  darted  his  iron- 
fenced  hoof  into  his  attendant's  breast  or  fore- 
head, and  has  lamed  or  killed  him  on  the  spot. 

And  would  the  wise  Governor  of  the  world. 


46  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  It, 

tte  kind  protector  of  his  obedient  creatures,  per- 
mit this  rebellion,  even  of  the  tamest  animals 
and  basest  vermin,  against  man,  if  man  himself 
was  not  a  daring  rebel  against  him  ? 

EIGHTH  ARGUMENT. 

That  a  contemptible  insect  should  dare  to  set 
upon,  and  be  able  to  devour  a  proud  monarch,  a 
Herod  in  the  midst  of  his  guards,  is  terrible : 
but  the  mischief  stops  not  here.  Numerous 
tribes  of  other  base  animals  are  armed  with  poi- 
sonous tongues  or  stings,  and  use  them  against 
mankind  with  peculiar  rage.  To  say  nothing  of 
mad  dogs,  have  not  asps,  vipers,*  tarantulas, 
scorpions,  and  other  venomous  serpents  and 
insects,  the  destructive  skill  of  extracting  the 
quintessence  of  the  curse  which  sin,  our  moral 
poison,  hath  brought  upon  the  earth  ?  When  we 
come  within  their  reach,  do  they  not  bite  or  sting 
us  with  the  utmost  fury  ?  and,  by  infusing  their 
subtile  venom  in  our  blood,  spread  they  not  an- 
guish and  destruction  through  our  agonizing 
frame  ?  Answer,  ye  thousands,  who  died  in  the 
wilderness  of  the  bite  of  fiery  serpents ;  and  ye 
multitudes,  who,  in  almost  all  countries,  have 
shared  their  deplorable  fate. 

Let  us  descend  to  the  vegetable  world.  How 
many  deceitful  roots,  plants,  and  fruits,  deposit 
their  pernicious  juices  in  the  stomach  of  those 
who  unwarily  feed  upon  them  ?     Did  not  Elisha 

*  Some  will  say  that  viper's  flesh  is  useful  in  physic.  I 
grant  it,  but  is  the  poison  of  that  creature  useful?  This 
must  be  proved  before  the  argument  can  be  invalidated. 


PART  II.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  -*  47 

and  the  sons  of  the  prophets  narrowly  escape 
being  poisoned  altogether,  by  one  of  them  fatally 
mistaking  a  pot-herb?  And  do  not  many  go 
quickly  or  slowly  to  their  grave  by  such  melan- 
choly accidents? 

Minerals  and  metals  are  not  the  last  to  enter 
into  the  general  conspiracy  against  mankind. 
Under  inoffensive  appearances,  do  they  not  con- 
tain what  is  destructive  to  the  animal  frame? 
And  have  not  many  fallen  a  sacrifice  to  their 
ignorance  of  the  mischief  lurking  in  arsenic,  and 
other  mineral  productions?*  Nor  are  metallic 
effluvia  less  hurtful  to  hundreds ;  and  the  health 
of  mankind  is,  perhaps,  more  injured  by  copper 
alone,  than  it  is  preserved  by  all  the  mineral 
•waters  in  the  world.  It  is  acknowledged  that 
numbers  are  poisoned  by  food  prepared  in  uten- 
sils made  of  that  dangerous  metal;  and  how 
many  are  insensibly  hurt  by  the  same  means,  is 
only  known  to  a  wise  and  righteous  Providence. 

Thus,  God  leaves  us  in  the  world,  where  mis- 
chief lurks  under  a  variety  of  things  apparently 
itseful,  without  giving  us  the  least  intimation  of 
destruction  near.  To  say  that  infinite  goodness 
can  deal  thus  with  innocent  creatures,  is  offering 
violence  to  our  reason,  and  an  affront  to  Divine 
justice.     Conclude,  then,  with  me,  reader,  that 


*  It  is  objected  that  excellent  remedies  are  prepared 
with  antimony  and  mercury.  But  it  is  well  known  that 
the  persons  who  use  them  only  expel  one  poison  with 
another;  as  the  decayed  constitutions  of  those  who  have 
frequent  recourse  to  such  violent  medicines  abundantly 
Drove. 


48  AN  APPEAL  TO  [pART  H. 

we  have  lost  our  original  innocence,  and  for- 
feited our  Creator's  favor. 

NINTH  ARGUMENT. 

But  if  the  generality  of  mankind  escape  all 
the  various  sorts  of  poison,  do  they  escape  the 
curse  of  toil  and  sweat?  And  is  not  a  great 
majority  of  them  reduced  to  such  sordid  want, 
and  pressing  necessity,  as  to  be  obliged  to  do  the 
greatest  drudgery  for  a  wretched  maintenance  ? 

When  God  made  them  to  have  dominion  over 
the  works  of  his  hands — when  he  put  all  things 
in  subjection  under  their  feet,  and  crowned  them 
with  glory  and  honor,  they  filled  up  each  happy 
hour  in  evidencing  their  love  to  him  and  to  each 
other;  they  spent  their  golden  moments  in  ad- 
miring the  variety  and  beauty  of  his  works,  find- 
ing out  the  divine  signature  impressed  upon 
them,  swaying  their  mild  scepter  over  the  obedi- 
ent creation,  and  enjoying  the  rich,  incorruptible 
fruits,  which  the  earth  spontaneously  produced 
in  the  greatest  perfection  and  abundance.  Thus 
their  pleasure  was  without  idleness  or  pain,  and 
their  employment  without  toil  or  weariness. 

But  no  sooner  did  disobedience  open  the  flood- 
gates of  natural  evil,  than  arduous  labor  came 
in  full  tide  upon  mankind ;  and  a  thousand  pain- 
ful arts  were  invented  to  mitigate  the  manifold 
curses  which  sin  had  brought  upon  them. 

Since  the  fall,  our  bodies  are  become  vulnera- 
ble and  shamefully  naked :  and  it  is  the  business 
of  thousands  to  make,  or  sell,  all  sorts  of  gar- 
ments for  our  defense  and  ornament.     The  earth 


PART  II.J  MATTBR  OF  FACT.  49 

has  lost  her  original  fertility;  and  thousands 
more  with  iron  instruments  open  her  bosom  to 
force  her  to  yield  us  a  maintenance;  or  with  im- 
mense labor  secure  her  precarious,  decaying 
fruits.  Immoderate  rains  deprive  her  of  her  so- 
lidity, and  earthquakes  or  deluges  destroy  her 
evenness;  numbers,  therefore,  are  painfully  em- 
ployed in  making  or  mending  roads.  Each 
country  affords  some  only  of  the  necessaries  or 
conveniences  of  life ;  this  obliges  the  mercantile 
inhabitants  to  transport,  with  immense  trouble 
and  danger,  the  produce  of  one  place  to  supply 
the  wants  of  another.  Wc  are  exposed  to  a  va- 
riety of  dangers ;  our  persons  and  property  must 
be  secured  against  the  inclemency  of  the  weather, 
the  attacks  of  evil  beasts,  and  assaults  of 
wicked  men ;  hence  the  fatigue  of  millions  of 
workmen  in  wood  and  stone,  metals  and  min- 
erals ;  and  the  toils  and  hazards  of  millions  more 
who  live  by  making,  wearing,  or  using  the  various 
instruments  of  war  and  slaughter. 

Disorder  and  injustice  give  rise  to  govern- 
ment, politics,  and  a  labyrinth  of  laws ;  and 
those  employ  myriads  of  officers,  lawyers,  magis- 
trates, and  rulers.  We  are  subject  to  a  thousand 
pains  and  maladies ;  hence  myriads  more  prescribe 
and  prepare  remedies,  or  attend  and  nurse  the 
sick.  Our  universal  ignorance  occasions  the 
tedious  labor  of  giving  and  receiving  instruction 
in  all  tlie  branches  of  liuman  and  Divine  knowl- 
edge. And  to  complete  the  whole,  the  original 
tongue  of  mankind  is  confounded,  .and  even 
neighboring    nations    are    barbarians    to    each 


80  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PAKT  H. 

other ;  from  hence  arise  the  painful  lucubrations 
of  critics  and  linguists,  with  the  infinite  trouble 
of  teaching  and  learning  various  languages. 

The  curse  introduced  by  sin  is  the  occasion 
of  all  these  toils.  They  are  soon  mentioned ; 
but,  alas !  how  long,  how  grievous  do  they  ap- 
pear to  those  that  feel  their  severity  ?  How 
many  sighs  have  they  forced  from  the  breasts, 
how  much  sweat  from  the  bodies  of  mankind? 
Unite  the  former,  a  tempest  might  ensue ;  collect 
the  latter,  it  would  swell  into  rivers. 

To  go  no  farther  than  this  populous  parish, 
with  what  hardships  and  dangers  do  our  indigent 
neighbors  earn  their  bread!  See  those  who 
ransack  the  bowels  of  the  earth  to  get  the  black 
mineral  we  burn ;  how  little  is  their  lot  prefer- 
able to  that  of  the  Spanish  felons  who  work  the 
golden  mines  ? 

They  take  their  leave  of  the  light  of  the  sun, 
and,  suspended  by  a  rope,  are  let  down  many 
fathoms  perpendicularly  toward  the  center  of 
the  globe ;  they  traverse  the  rocks  through  which 
they  have  dug  their  horizontal  ways ;  the  mur- 
derer's cell  is  a  palace  in  comparison  of  the 
black  spot  to  which  they  repair ;  the  vagrant's 
posture  in  the  stocks  is  preferable  to  that  in 
which  they  labor. 

Form,  if  you  can,  an  idea  of  the  misery  of 
men  kneeling,  stooping,  or  lying  on  one  side,  to 
toil  all  day  in  a  confined  place,  where  a  child 
could  hardly  stand ;  while  a  younger  company, 
with  their  hands  and  feet  on  the  black,  dusty 
ground,  and  a  chain  about  their  body,  creep  and 


PART  n.J  MATTER  OF  FACT.  61- 

drag  along,  like  four-footed  beasts,  heavy  loads 
of  the  dirty  mineral,  through  ways  almost  im- 
passable to  the  curious  observer. 

In  these  low  and  dreary  vaults  all  the  elements 
seem  combined  against  them.  Destructive 
damps,  and  clouds  of  noxious  dust  infect  the  air 
they  breathe.  Sometimes  water  incessantly  dis- 
tills on  their  naked  bodies;  or  bursting  upon 
them  in  streams,  drowns  them  and  deluges  their 
work.  At  other  times,  pieces  of  detached  rocks 
crush  them  to  death,  or  the  earth,  breaking  in 
upon  them,  buries  them  alive.  And  frequently 
sulphureous  vapors,  kindled  in  an  instant  by  the 
light  of  their  candles,  form  subterraneous  thun- 
der and  lightning.  What  a  dreadful  phenome- 
non !  how  impetuous  is  the  blast !  how  fierce  the 
rolling  flames !  how  intolerable  the  noisome 
smell !  how  dreadful  the  continued  roar !  how 
violent  and  fatal  the  explosion ! 

Wonderful  Providence  !  some  of  the  unhappy 
men  have  time  to  prostrate  themselves — the  fiery 
scourge  grazes  their  backs,  the  ground  shields 
their  breasts ;  they  escape.  See  them  wound 
up  out  of  the  blazing  dungeon,  and  say  if  these 
are  not  brands  plucked  out  of  the  fire.  A  pes- 
tiferous steam,  and  clouds  of  suffocating  smoke 
pursue  them.  Half  dead  themselves,  they  hold 
their  dead  or  dying  companions  in  their  trembling 
arms.  Merciful  God  of  Shadrach !  Kind  Pro- 
tector of  Meshech !  Mighty  Deliverer  of  Abed- 
nego  !  Patient  Preserver  of  rebellious  Jonah  ! 
Will  not  these  xitter  a  song — a  song  of  praise  to 
thee — praise,  ardent  as  the  flames  they  escape — 


8Z  AK  APPEAL  TO  [PART  tl. 

lasting  as  the  life  thou  prolongest ! — alas !  they 
refuse !  and  some — 0,  tell  it  not  among  the  hea- 
thens, lest  they  forever  abhor  the  name  of 
Christian — some  return  to  the  very  pits,  where 
they  have  been  branded  with  sulphureous  fire  by 
the  warning  hand  of  Providence;  and  there, 
sporting  themselves  again  with  the  most  infer- 
nal wishes,  call  aloud  for  a  fire  that  can  not  be 
quenched,  and  challenge  the  Almighty  to  cast 
them  into  hell,  that  bottomless  pit  whence  there 
is  no  return. 

Leave  these  black  men  at  their  perilous  work, 
and  see  yonder  bargemen  hauling  that  loaded 
vessel  against  wind  and  stream.  Since  the  dawn 
of  the  day,  they  have  wrestled  with  the  impetu- 
ous current ;  and  now  that  it  almost  overpowers 
them,  how  do  they  exert  all  their  remaining 
strength,  and  strain  their  every  nerve !  how  are 
they  bathed  in  sweat  and  rain !  Fastened  to 
their  lines  as  horses  to  their  traces,  wherein  do 
they  differ  from  the  laborious  brutes  ?  Not  in  an 
erect  posture  of  body,  for  in  the  intenseness  of 
their  toil  they  bend  forward,  their  head  is  fore- 
most, and  their  hands  upon  the  ground.  If  there 
is  any  difference,  it  consists  in  this :  horses  are 
indulged  with  a  collar  to  save  their  breasts ;  and 
these,  as  if  theirs  were  not  worth  saving,  draw 
without  one ;  the  beasts  tug  in  patience,  silence, 
and  mutual  harmony ;  but  the  men  with  loud  con- 
tention and  horrible  imprecations.  O,  sin,  what 
hast  thou  done !  is  it  not  enough  that  these 
drudges  should  toil  like  brutes ;  must  they  also 
curse  one  another  like  devils  ? 


PAET  II.]  MATTER  OF  TACT.  53 

If  you  have  gone  beyond  the  hearing  of  their 
impious  oaths,  stop  to  consider  the  sons  of  Vul- 
can confined  to  these  forges  and  furnaces.  Is 
their  lot  much  preferable?  a  sultry  air,  and 
clouds  of  smoke  and  dust,  are  the  element  in 
which  they  labor.  The  confused  noise  of  water 
falling,  steam  hissing,  fire-engines  working,  wheels 
turning,  fires  creaking,  hammers  beating,  ore 
bursting,  and  bellows  roaring,  form  the  dismal 
concert  that  strikes  the  ears,  while  a  continual 
eruption  of  flames,  ascending  from  the  mouth  of 
their  artificial  volcanoes,  dazzle  their  eyes  with  a 
horrible  glare.  Massy  bars  of  hot  iron  are  the 
heavy  tools  they  handle,  cylinders  of  the  first  mag- 
nitude the  enormous  weights  they  heave,  vessels 
full  of  melted  metal  the  dangerous  loads  they 
carry,  streams  of  the  same  burning  fluid  the  fiery 
rivers  which  they  conduct  into  the  deep  cavities 
of  their  subterraneous  molds;  and  millions  of 
flying  sparks,  with  a  thousand  drops  of  liquid 
hissing  iron,  the  horrible  showers  to  which  they 
are  exposed.  See  them  cast ;  you  would  think 
them  in  a  bath,  and  not  in  a  furnace ;  they  be- 
dew the  burning  sand  with  their  streaming  sweat ; 
nor  are  their  wet  garments  dried  up,  either  by 
the  fierce  fires  that  they  attend,  or  the  fiery 
streams  which  they  manage.  Certainly,  of  all 
men,  these  have  reason  to  remember  the  just 
sentence  of  an  offended  God :  In  the  sweat  of 
thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  thy  bread  all  the  days  of 
thy  life. 

All,  indeed,  do  not  go  through  the  same  toil ; 
but  all  have  their  share  of  it,  either  in  body  or  in 


ti  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  11. 

mind.  Behold  the  studious  son  of  learning; 
his  intense  application  hath  wasted  his  flesh,  ex- 
hausted his  spirits,  and  almost  dried  up  his  radi- 
cal moisture.  Consider  the  man  of  fortune ; 
can  his  thousands  a  year  exempt  him  from  the 
curse  of  Adam?  No:  he  toils  perhaps  harder 
in  his  sports  and  debaucheries,  than  the  poor 
plowman  that  works  his  estate. 

View  that  corpulent  epicure,  who  idles  away 
the  whole  day  between  the  festal  board  and  the 
dozing  couch.  You  may  think  that  he,  at  least, 
is  free  from  the  curse  which  I  describe :  but  you 
are  mistaken ;  while  he  is  living,  as  he  thinks,  a 
life  of  luxurious  ease  and  gentle  inactivity,  he 
fills  himself  with  crude  humors,  and  makes  way 
for  the  gnawing  gout  and  racking  gravel.  See 
even  now,  how  strongly  he  perspires,  and  with 
what  uneasiness  he  draws  his  short  breath,  and 
wipes  his  dewy,  shining  face!  Surely  he  toils 
under  the  load  of  an  indigested  meal,  A  porter 
carries  a  burden  upon  his  brawny  shoulders,  but 
this  wretch  has  conveyed  one  into  his  sick  stom- 
ach. He  will  not  work ;  let  him  alone ;  and  ere- 
long acute  pains  will  bathe  him  in  as  profuse  a 
sweat  as  that  of  the  furnace  man ;  and  stiong 
medicines  will  exercise  him  to  such  a  degree, 
that  he  will  envy  even  the  collier's  lot. 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  mankind  are  un- 
der a  curse  of  toil  and  sweat,  according  to  the 
Divine  sentence  recorded  by  Moses;*  and  that 

*  It  has  been  asserted  that  the  short  pleasure  of  eating 
and  drinking  makes  amends  for  the  severest  toil.  The 
best  way  to  bring  such  idle,  sensual  objectors  to  reason, 


PART  II.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  56 

they  are  frequently  condemned  by  Providence 
to  as  hard  labor  for  life,  as  wretched  felons 
rowing-  in  the  galleys,  or  digging  in  the  mines.* 
But,  as  it  is  absolutely  incredible,  that  a  good 
God,  who  by  a  word  can  supply  the  wants  of  all 
his  creatures,  should  have  sentenced  innocent 
mankind  to  these  inconceivable  hardships,  to 
procure  or  enjoy  the  necessaries  of  life,  it  is  evi- 
dent they  are  guilty,  miserable  offenders. 

TENTH  ARGUMENT. 

Hard  labor  and  sweat  make  up  but  one  of  the 
innumerable  calamities  incident  to  the  wretched 
inhabitants  of  this  world.  Turn  your  eyes  which 
way  you  please,  and  you  will  see  some  flying 
from,  others  groaning  under,  the  rod  of  God ; 
and  the  greatest  number  busily  making  a  scourge 
for  the  backs  of  their  fellow -creatures,  or  their 
own. 

To  pass  over  the  misery  of  the  brute  creation ; 
to  say  nothing  of  the  subtility  and  rapaciousness 
with  which — after  the  example  of  menf — they 

would  be  to  make  them  earn  every  meal  by  two  or  three 
hours'  threshing.  Besides,  what  great  pleasure  can  those 
have  in  eating,  who  actually  starve,  or  just  stay  gnawing 
hunger  by  food  coarser  than  that  which  their  rich  neigh- 
bors give  to  their  dogs? 

*  God's  image  disinherited  of  day, 

Here  plunged  in  mines  forgets  a  sun  was  made, 
There,  beings  deathless  as  their  haughty  lord, 
Are  hammer'd  to  the  galling  oar  for  life, 
And  plow  the  winter's  wave,  and  reap  despair. 

YOXJNG. 
■j-  Eager  ambition's  fiery  chase  I  see; 
I  see  the  circling  hunt  of  noisy  men, 
Burst  law's  inclosure,  leap  the  mounds  of  right, 


§$  AN  APPJBAL  TO  [part  II. 

long  wait  for,  and  prey  upon  one  another ;  to  cast 
a  vail  over  the  agonies  of  millions,  that  are  daily 
stabbed,  strangled,  shot,  and  even  flayed,  boiled, 
or  swallowed  up  alive,  for  the  support  of  man's 
life,  or  the  indulgence  of  his  luxury ;  and  not  to 
mention  again  the  almost  uninterrupted  cries  of 
feeble  infancy;  only  take  notice  of  the  tedious 
confinement  of  childhood,  the  blasted  schemes 
of  youth,  the  anxious  cares  of  riper  years,  and 
the  deep  groans  of  wrinkled,  decrepit,  tottering 
old  age.  Fix  your  attention  upon  family  trials ; 
here  a  prodigal  father  ruins  his  children,  or  un- 
dutiful  children  break  the  hearts  of  their  fond 
parents ;  there  an  unkind  husband  imbitters  the 
life  of  his  wife,  or  an  imprudent  wife  stains  the 
honor  of  her  husband ;  a  servant  disobeys,  a  re- 
lation misbehaves,  a  son  lies  ill,  a  tenant  breaks, 
a  neighbor  provokes,  a  rival  supplants,  a  friend 
betrays,  or  an  enemy  triiunphs;  peace  seldom 
continues  one  day. 

Listen  to  the  sighs  of  the  afilicted,  the  moans 
of  the  disconsolate,  the  complaints  of  the  op- 
pressed, and  shrieks  of  the  tortured;  consider 
the  deformity  of  the  faces  of  some,  and  distor- 
tion or  mutilation  of  the  limbs  of  others;  to 
awaken  your  compassion,*  here  a  beggar  holds 


Parsuing  and  pursued,  each  other's  prey; 
As  wolves,  for  rapine ;  as  the  fox,  for  wiles ; 
Till  Death,  that  mighty  hunter,  earths  them  all. 

Young. 

Some  for  hard  masters  broken  under  arms. 
In  battle  lopp'd  away,  with  half  their  limbs. 
Beg  bitter  bread  through  realms  their  valor  saved. 

Young. 


PART  II.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  57 

out  the  stump  of  a  thigh  or  an  arm;  there  a 
ragged  wretch  hops  after  you,  upon  one  leg  and 
two  crutches ;  and  a  little  farther  you  meet  with 
a  poor  creature,  using  his  hands  instead  of  feet, 
and  dragging  through  the  mire  the  cumbrous 
weight  of  a  body  without  lower  parts. 

Imagine,  if  possible,  the  hardships  of  those 
who  are  destitute  of  one  of  their  senses;  here, 
the  blind  is  guided  by  a  dog,  or  gropes  for  his 
way  in  the  blaze  of  noon;  there,  the  deaf  lies 
on  the  brink  of  danger,  inattentive  to  the  loudest 
calls ;  here,  sits  the  dumb,  sentenced  to  eternal 
silence ;  there,  dribbles  the  idiot,  doomed  to  per- 
petual childhood;  and  yonder,  the  paralytic 
shakes  without  intermission,  or  lies  senseless,  the 
frightful  image  of  a  lifeless  corpse. 

Leaving  these  wretched  creatures,  consider 
the  tears  of  the  disappointed — the  sorrows  of  the 
captive — the  anxieties  of  the  accused — the  fears 
of  the  guilty,  and  terrors  of  the  condemned. 
Take  a  turn  through  jails,  inquisitions,  houses 
of  correction,  and  places  of  execution.  Proceed 
to  the  mournful  rooms  of  the  languishing,  and 
wearisome  beds  of  the  sick ;  and  let  not  the  fear 
of  seeing  human  woe,  in  some  of  its  most  de- 
plorable appearances,  prevent  you  from  visiting 
hospitals,  infirmaries,  and  bedlams : 

A  place 
Before  your  eyes  appears,  sad,  noisome,  dark, 
A  lazar-house  it  seems,  wherein  are  laid 
Numbers  of  all  diseased:  all  maladies 
Of  ehastly  spasm,  or  racking  torture,  qualms 
Of  neart-sick  agony,  all  fev'rous  kinds, 
(/Onvulsions,  epilepsies,  fierce  catarrhs, 


58  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  11. 

Intestine  stone,  and  ulcer,  colic-pang^, 

Demoniac  frenzy,  moping  melanchoTj, 

And  moon-struck  maaness,  pining  atrophy, 

Marasmus  and  wide-wasting  pestilence, 

Dropsies,  and  asthmas,  and  joint-rackingrheums. 

Dire  is  tiie  tossing!     Deep  the  groans !     Despair 

Attends  the  sick,  Dusiest  from  couch  to  couch; 

And  over  them,  triumphant  Death  his  dart 

Shakes ;  but  delays  to  strike,  though  oft  invoked 

With  vows,  as  their  chief  good  and  final  hope.    MiLTON. 


To  close  the  horrible  prospect,  view  the  ruins 
of  cities  and  kingdoms — the  calamities  of  wrecks 
and  sieges — ^the  horrors  of  sea-fights  and  fields 
of  battle ,  with  all  the  crimes,  devastation,  and 
cruelties,  that  accompany  revenge,  contention, 
and  war,  and  you  will  be  obliged  to  conclude, 
with  Job,  that  corrupt  man  is  born  to  trouble,  as 
the  sparks  fly  upward ;  with  David,  that  the 
earth  is  full  of  darkness  and  cruel  habitations; 
and  with  every  impartial  inquirer,  that  our  de- 
pravity and  God's  justice  concur  to  make  this 
world  a  vale  of  tears,  as  well  as  a  field  of  toil  and 
sweat ;  a  vast  prison  for  rebels  already  "  tied 
with  the  chains  of  their  sins,"  a  boundless  scaffold 
for  their  execution,  a  golgotha,  an  aceldama,  an 
immense  field  of  torture  and  blood. 

Some  will  probably  say,  "  This  picture  of  the 
world  is  drawn  with  black  lines,  but  kinder  Provi- 
dence blends  light  and  shade  together,  and  tem- 
pers our  calamities  with  numberless  blessings." 
I  answer — it  can  not  be  too  thankfully  acknowl- 
edged, that  while  patience  suspends  the  stroke 
of  justice,  God,  for  Christ's  sake,  restores  us  a 
thousand  forfeited  blessings,  that  his  goodness 


PART  n.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  69 

may  lead  us  to  repentance.  But,  alas !  what  is 
the  consequence,  where  Divine  grace  does  not 
prove  victorious  over  cornipt  nature  ?  To  all 
our  sins,  do  we  not  add  the  crime  of  either  en- 
joying the  favors  of  Providence  with  the  great- 
est ingratitude,  or  of  abusing  them  with  the  most 
provoking  insolence  ? 

Our  actions  are  far  more  expressive  of  our 
real  sentiments  than  our  words.  Why  this  va- 
riety of  exquisite  food  ?  says  the  voluptuary  whose 
life  loudly  speaks  what  his  lips  dare  not  utter. 
Why  this  abundance  of  delicious  wines,  but  to 
tempt  my  unbridled  appetite,  and  please  my 
luxurious  palate?  Would  God  have  given  soft- 
ness to  silks,  brightness  to  colors,  and  luster  to 
diamonds?  says  the  self-applauding  smile  of  a 
foolish  virgin  who  worships  herself  in  a  glass ; 
would  he  have  commanded  the  white  of  the  lily 
thus  to  meet  the  blush  of  the  rose,  and  highten 
so  elegant  a  proportion  of  features,  if  he  had  not 
designed  that  the  united  powers  of  art,  dress, 
and  beauty,  should  make  me  share  his  divine 
honors  ?  Why  are  we  blessed  with  our  dear 
children  and  amiable  friends,  says  the  ridiculous 
behavior  of  fond  parents  and  raptured  lovers, 
but  that  we  should  suspend  our  happiness  on 
their  ravishing  smiles,  and  place  them  as  favor- 
ite idols  in  the  shrine  of  our  hearts?  And  why 
has  Heaven  favored  me  both  with  a  strong  con- 
stitution and  an  affluent  fortune,  says  the  rich 
slave  of  brutish  lusts,  but  I  may  drink  deeper  of 
earthly  joys  and  sensual  delights? 

Thus   blessings,  abused   or  unimproved,  be- 


60  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  II. 

come  curses  in  our  hands.  God's  indulgence 
encourges  us  to  oflfend  him;  we  have  the  fatal 
skill  of  extracting  poison  from  the  sweetest 
flowers ;  and  madly  turn  the  gifts  of  Providence 
into  weapons  to  attack  our  Benefactor,  and  de- 
stroy ourselves.  That  there  are,  then,  such  per- 
verted gifts,  does  not  prove  that  mankind  are 
innocent,  but  that  God's  patience  endureth  yet 
daily,  and  that  a  Savior  ever  liveth  to  make  in- 
tercession for  us. 

Should  it  be  farther  objected,  that  "  our  pleas- 
ures counterbalance  calamities,"  I  answer,  the 
greatest  part  of  mankind  are  so  oppressed  with 
want  and  cares,  toil  and  sickness,  that  their  in- 
tervals of  ease  may  rather  be  termed  "  an  alle- 
viation of  misery,"  than  an  "  enjoyment  of  hap- 
piness." Our  pains  are  real  and  lasting — our 
joys  imaginary  and  momentary.  Could  we  ex- 
ercise all  our  senses  upon  the  most  pleasing  ob- 
jects, the  toothache  would  render  all  insipid  and 
burdensome ;  a  fit  of  the  gout  alone  damps  every 
worldly  joy,  while  all  earthly  delights  together 
can  not  give  us  ease  under  it — so  vastly  superior 
is  the  bitterness  of  one  bodily  pain  to  the  sweet- 
ness of  all  the  pleasures  of  sense ! 

If  objectors  will  urge  that  "  sufierings  are 
needful  for  our  trial,"  I  reply,  they  are  necessary 
for  our  punishment  and  correction,  but  not  for 
our  trial.  A  good  king  can  try  the  loyalty  of 
his  subjects  without  putting  them  to  the  rack. 
Let  Nero  and  Bonner  try  the  innocent  by  all  sorts 
of  tortures,  but  let  not  their  barbarity  be  charged 
upon  a  God  strictly  just  and  infinitely  good. 


PlRT  n.}  MATTBR  OF  FACT.  61 

However,  "calamities  prove  a  blessing  to 
some."  And  so  does  transportation.  But  who 
ever  inferred  from  thence,  that  reformed  felons 
were  transported  for  the  trial  of  their  virtue,  and 
not  for  the  punishment,  of  their  crimes  ?  I  con- 
clude, therefore,  that  our  calamities  and  miseries 
demonstrate  our  corruption  as  strongly  as  the 
punishment  of  the  bastinado  and  pillory,  ap- 
pointed by  an  equitable  judge,  prove  the  guilt 
of  those  on  whom  they  are  frequently  and  se- 
verely inflicted. 

ELEVENTH   ARGUMENT. 

Would  to  God  the  multiplied  calamities  of  life 
were  a  sufficient  punishment  for  our  desperate 
wickedness !  But,  alas !  they  only  make  way 
for  the  pangs  of  death.  Like  traitors,  or  rather 
like  wolves  and  vipers,  to  which  the  Son  of  God 
compares  natural  men,  we  are  all  devoted  to 
destruction.  Yes,  as  we  kill  those  mischievous 
creatures,  so  God  destroys  the  sinful  sons  of 
men. 

If  the  reader  is  offended,  and  denies  the  mor- 
tifying assertion,  let  him  visit  with  me  the  mourn- 
ful spot  where  thousands  are  daily  executed,  and 
where  hundreds  make  this  moment  their  dying 
speech.  I  do  not  mean  what  some  call  "  the 
bed  of  honor" — a  field  of  battle — but  a  com- 
mon death-bed. 

Observing,  as  we  go  along,  those  black  tro- 
phies of  the  king  of  terrors,  those  escutcheons, 
which  preposterous  vanity  fixes  up  in  honor  of 
the  deceased,  when  kind  charity  should  hang 


62'  .    AN  APPEAL  TO  [pART  H. 

them  out  as  a  warning  to  the  living,  let  us  repair 
to  those  mournful  apartments  where  weeping 
attendants  support  the  dying,  where  swooning 
friends  embrace  the  dead,  or  whence  distracted 
relatives  carry  out  the  pale  remains  of  all  their 

joy- 
Guided  by  their  groans  and  funeral  lights,  let 
us  proceed  to  the  dreary  charnel-houses  and  cal- 
varies, which  we  decently  call  vaults  and  church- 
yards; .and,  without  stopping  to  look  at  the 
monuments  of  some,  whom  my  objector  remem- 
bers as  vigorous  as  himself,  and  of  others,  who 
were,  perhaps,  his  partners  in  nightly  revels, 
let  us  hasten  to  see  the  dust  of  his  moldered 
ancestors,  and  to  read  upon  yonder  coffins  the 
dear  name  of  a  parent,  a  child,  perhaps  a  wife, 
turned  off  from  his  bosom  into  the  gulf  of 
eternity ! 

If  this  sight  does  not  convince  him,  I  shall 
open  one  of  the  noisome  repositories,  and  show 
him  the  deep  hollows  of  those  eyes  that  darted 
tender  sensation  into  his  soul,  and  odious  rep- 
tiles fattened  upon  the  once  charming,  now 
ghastly,  face  he  doated  upon !  But  methinks 
he  turns  pale  at  the  very  proposal,  and,  rather 
than  be  confronted  with  such  witnesses,  ac- 
knowledges that  he  is  condemned  to  die,  with  all 
his  dear  relatives,  and  the  whole  human  race. 

And  is  this  the  case  ?  Are  we,  then,  under 
sentence  of  death?  How  awful  is  the  consid- 
eration! Of  all  the  things  that  nature  dreads, 
is  not  death  the  most  terrible  ?  And  is  it  not — 
as   being  the   greatest  of  temporal   evils — ap- 


PART  n.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  63 

pointed  by  human  and  divine  laws  for  the  pun- 
ishment of  capital  offenders,  whether  they  are 
named  felons  and  traitors,  or  more  genteelly 
called  men  and  sinners?  Let  matter  of  fact 
decide. 

While  earthly  judges  condemn  murderers  and 
traitors  to  be  hanged  or  beheaded,  does  not  the 
Judge  of  all  sentence  sinful  mankind  either  to 
pine  away  with  old  age,  or  be  wasted  with  con- 
sumptions, burned  with  fevers,  scalded  with  hot 
humors,  eaten  up  with  cancers,  putrefied  by  mor- 
tifications, suffocated  by  asthmas,  strangled  by 
quinseys,  poisoned  by  the  cup  of  excess,  stabbed 
with  the  knife  of  luxury,  or  racked  to  death  by 
disol-ders  as  loathsome,  and  accidents  as  various, 
as  their  sins  ? 

If  you  consider  the  circumstances  of  their 
execution,  where  is  the  material  difference  be- 
tween the  malefactor  and  the  sinner  ?  The  jailer 
and  the  turnkey  confine  the  one  to  his  cell;  the 
disorder  and  the  physician  confine  the  other  to 
his  bed.  The  one  lives  upon  bread  and  water; 
the  other  upon  draughts  and  boluses.  The  one 
can  walk  with  his  fetters ;  the  other,  loaded  with 
blisters,  can  scarcely  turn  himself.  The  one 
enjoys  freedom  from  pain,  and  has  the  perfect 
use  of  his  senses;  the  other  complains  he  is 
racked  all  over,  and  is  frequently  delirious.  The 
executioner  does  his  office  upon  the  one  in  a 
few  minutes;  but  the  physician  and  his  medi- 
cines make  the  other  linger  for  days,  before  he 
can  die  out  of  his  misery.  An  honest  sheriff, 
and   constables   armed  with  staves,  wait  upon 


fi4  AK  APPEAL  TO  [pART  It 

one;  while  a  greedy  undertaker  and  his  party, 
■with  like  emblems  of  authority,  accompany  the 
other:  and  if  it  is  any  advantage  to  have  a  nu- 
merous attendance,  without  comparison  the  felon 
has  the  greater  train. 

When  the  pangs  of  death  are  over,  does  not 
the  difference  made  between  the  corpses  consist 
more  in  appearance  than  reality?  The  mur- 
derer is  dissected  in  the  surgeon's  hall,  gratis; 
and  the  rich  sinner  is  emboweled  in  his  own 
apartment  at  great  expense. 

The  robber,  exposed  to  open  air,  wastes  away 
in  hoops  of  iron;  and  the  gentleman,  confined 
to  a  damp  vault,  molders  away  rn  sheets  of  lead : 
and  while  the  fowls  of  the  air  greedily  prey 
upon  the  one,  the  vermin  of  the  earth  eagerly 
devour  the  other. 

And  if  you  consider  them  as  launching  into 
the  world  of  spirits,  is  not  the  advantage,  in  one 
respect,  on  the  malefactor's  side  ?  He  is  solemnly 
assured  he  must  die ;  and  when  the  death-war- 
rant comes  down,  all  about  him  bid  him  prepare, 
and  make  the  best  of  his  short  time:  but  the 
physician  and  chaplain,  friends  and  attendants, 
generally  flatter  the  honorable  sinner  to  the  last. 
And  what  is  the  consequence  ?  He  either  sleeps 
on  in  carnal  security,  till  death  puts  an  end  to 
all  his  delusive  dreams,  or,  if  he  has  some  no- 
tion that  he  must  repent,  for  fear  of  discom- 
posing his  spirits,  he  still  puts  it  oft'  till  to-mor- 
row; and,  in  the  midst  of  his  delays,  God  says, 
Thou  fool,  this  night  thy  soul  shall  be  required 
of  thee.     What  wonder  is  it  then,  if,  when  the 


PART  n.]  MATTER  OP  FACT.  66 

converted  thief  goes  from  the  ignominious  tree 
to  paradise,  the  impenitent  rich  man  passes  from 
his  purple  bed  into  an  awful  eternity,  and  there 
lifts  up  his  eyes  in  unexpected  torments  ? 

If  these  are  truths  too  obvious  to  be  denied, 
wilt  thou,  sinner,  as  the  thoughtless  vulgar,  blunt 
their  edge  by  saying,  with  amazing  unconcern, 
"Death  is  a  debt  we  must  all  pay  to  nature?" 
Alas !  this  is  granting  the  point ;  for  if  all  have 
contracted  so  dreadful  a  debt,  all  are  in  a  cor- 
rupt and  lost  estate.  Nor  is  this  debt  to  be  paid 
to  nature,  but  to  justice;  otherwise,  dying  would 
be  as  easy  as  sleeping,  or  any  other  natural 
action:  but  it  is  beyond  expression  terrible  to 
thee,  from  whose  soul  the  Redeemer  has  not 
extracted  sin,  the  monster's  sting ;  and  if  thou 
dost  not  see  it  now,  in  the  most  alarming  light, 
it  is  because  thou  either  iraaginest  it  at  a  great 
distance,  or  the  double  vail  of  rash  presumption, 
and  brutish  stupidity,  is  yet  upon  thy  hardened 
heart. 

Or  wilt  thou,  as  the  poor  heathens,  comfort 
thyself  with  the  cruel  thought,  that  "  thou  shalt 
not  die  alone?"  Alas!  dying  companions  may 
increase,  but  can  not  take  off  the  horror  of  dis- 
solution. Besides,  though  we  live  in  a  crowd, 
we  generally  die  alone:  each  must  drink  that 
bitter  cup,  as  if  he  were  the  only  mortal  in  the 
universe. 

What  must  we  do,  then,  in  such  deplorable 
circumstances?  What,  but  humble  ourselves 
in  the  dust,  and  bow  low  to  the  scepter  of  Di- 
vine justice ;  confessing  that,  since  the  righteous 
5 


no  AN  APPEAL  TO  [pART  11. 

God  has  condemned  us  to  certain  death,  and,  in 
general,  to  a  far  more  lingering  and  painful  death 
than  murderers  and  traitors  are  made  to  undergo, 
we  are  certainly  degenerate  creatures  and  capi- 
tal oflfenders,  who  stand  in  absolute  need  of  an 
almighty  Redeemer. 

Permit  me  now,  candid  reader,  to  make  a 
solemn  appeal  to  thy  reason,  assisted  by  the  fear 
of  God.  From  all  that  has  been  advanced,  does 
it  not  appear  that  man  is  no  more  the  favored, 
happy,  and  innocent  creature  he  was  when  he 
came  out  of  the  hands  of  his  infinitely-gracious 
Creator?  And  is  it  not  evident  that,  whether 
we  consider  him  as  born  into  this  disordered 
world,  or  dying  out  of  it,  or  passing  from  the 
womb  to  the  grave  under  a  variety  of  calamitous 
circumstances,  God's  providential  dealings  with 
him  prove  that  he  is,  by  nature,  in  a  corrupt  and 
lost  estate  ? 

A  part,  bow  small,  of  this  terraqueous  globe 

Is  tenanted  by  man,  the  rest  a  waste. 

Rocks,  deserts,  frozen  seas,  and  burning  sands, 

Wild  haunts  of  monsters,  poisons,  stings,  and  death ; 

Such  is  earth's  melancholy  map;  but  far 

More  sad,  this  earth  is  a  true  map  of  man; 

So  bounded  are  its  haughty  lord's  delights; 

So  wide  woe's  empire,  where  deep  troubles  toss, 

Loud  sorrows  howl,  envenom'd  passions  bite, 

Ravenous  calamities  our  vitals  seize, 

And  threat'ning  fate  wide  opens  to  devour. — YoUNG. 


PART  ni.J  MATTER  OF  TACT.  €V 


THIRD  PART. 

We  have  hitherto  considered  man  as  a  misera- 
able  inhabitant  of  a  -wretched  world.  We  have 
seen  him  surrounded  by  multitudes  of  wants — 
pursued  by  legions  of  distresses,  maladies,  and 
woes — arrested  by  the  king  of  terrors — cast  into 
the  grave,  and  shut  up  there,  the  loathsome  prey 
of  corruption  and  worms.  Let  us  now  con- 
sider him  as  a  moral  agent;  and,  by  examining 
his  disposition,  character,  and  conduct,  let  us 
see  whether  he  is  wisely  punished,  according  to 
the  sentence  of  impartial  justice;  or  wantonly 
tormented,  at  the  caprice  of  arbitrary  power. 

We  can  not  help  acknowledging,  it  is  highly 
reasonable,  first,  that  all  intelligent  creatures 
should  love,  reverence,  and  obey  their  Creator; 
because  he  is  most  eminently  their  Father,  their 
Master,  and  their  King:  secondly,  that  they 
should  assist,  support,  and  love  each  other,  as 
fellow-subjects,  fellow-servants,  and  children  of 
the  same  universal  parent:  and,  thirdly,  that  they 
should  preserve  their  souls  and  bodies  in  peace 
and  purity ;  by  which  means  alone  they  can  be 
happy  in  themselves,  profitable  to  man,  and  ac- 
ceptable to  God.  This  is  what  we  generally 
call  natural  religion ;  which  is  evidently  founded 
upon  eternal  reason,  the  fitness  of  things,  and 
the  essential  relations  of  persons. 

The  propriety  of  these  sanctions  is  so  self- 
evident,  that  the  Gentiles,  who  have  not  the 
written  law,  are  a  law  to  themselves,  and  do — 


68  AN  AFFSAL  TO  [pART  III. 

but,  alas !  how  seldom,  and  from  what  motives ! — 
the  things  contamed  in  the  law;  thus  showing 
that  the  work,  the  sum  and  substance  of  the  law, 
though  much  blotted  by  the  fall,  is  still  written 
in  their  heart.  Nor  will  it  be  erased  thence,  in 
hell  itself;  for  nothing  but  a  sight  of  the  equity 
of  God's  law  can  clear  his  vindictive  justice  in 
the  guilty  breast,  give  a  scorpion's  sting  to  the 
worm  that  gnaws  the  stubborn  offender,  and  arm 
his  upbraiding  conscience  with  a  whip  of  biting 
serpents. 

Since  the  moral  law  so  strongly  recommends 
itself  to  reason,  let  us  see  how  universally  it  is 
observed  or  broken ;  so  shall  matter  of  fact  de- 
cide, whether  we  are  pure>  and  upright,  or  pol- 
luted and  depraved. 

TWELFTH  ARGUMENT. 

Those  who  reject  the  Scriptures,  universally 
agree  that  all  have  sinned,  and  that  in  many 
things  we  offend  all.  Hence,  it  appears  that 
persons  of  various  constitutions,  ranks,  and  edu- 
cation, in  all  nations,  religions,  times,  and  places, 
are  born  in  such  a  state  and  with  such  a  nature, 
that  they  infallibly  commit  many  sins  in  thought, 
word,  or  deed. 

But  one  transgression  would  be  sufficient  to 
render  them  obnoxious  to  God's  displeasure,  and 
to  bring  them  under  the  fearful  curse  of  his 
broken  law ;  for,  even  according  to  the  statutes  of 
this  realm,  a  man  who  once  robs  a  traveler  of  a 
small  sum  of  money,  forfeits  his  life,  as  well  as 
the  bloody  highwayman,  who  for  years  barba- 


PART  III.]  MATTER  OP  FACT.  69 

rously  murders  all  those  whom  he  stops,  and 
accumulates  immense  wealth  by  his  repeated 
barbarities. 

The  reason  is  obvious :  both  incur  the  penalty 
of  the  law  which  forbids  robbery;  for  both  ef- 
fectually break  it,  though  one  does  it  oftener,  and 
with  far  more  aggravating  circumstances  than 
the  other.  So  sure,  then,  as  one  robbery  de- 
serves the  gallows,  one  sin  deserves  death ;  for 
the  soul  that  sinneth,  says  God's  law,  and  not 
the  soul  that  committeth  so  many  sins,  of  such 
or  such  a  heinousness,  it  shall  die.  Hence  it  is 
that  the  first  sin  of  the  first  man  was  punished 
both  with  spiritual  and  bodily  death,  and  with 
ten  thousand  other  evils.  The  justice  of  this 
sanction  will  appear  in  a  satisfactory  Hght,  if  we 
consider  the  following  remarks  : 

1.  In  our  present  natural  state,  we  are  such 
strangers  to  God's  glory  and  the  spirituality  of 
his  law,  and  we  are  so  used  to  drink  the  deadly 
poison  of  iniquity  like  water,  that  we  have  no 
idea  of  the  horror  which  should  seize  upon  us 
after  a  breach  of  the  divine  law.  We  are,  there- 
fore, as  unfit  judges  of  the  atrociousness  of  sin, 
as  lawless,  hardened  assassins,  who  shed  hu- 
man blood  like  water,  are  of  the  heinousness  of 
murder. 

2.  As  every  willful  sin  arises  from  a  disregard 
of  that  sovereign  authority,  which  is  equally 
stamped  upon  all  the  commandments,  it  hath  in 
it  the  principle  and  nature  of  all  possible  ini- 
quity ;  that  is,  the  disregard  and  contempt  of 
the  Almighty. 


^0  AN  APPKAL  TO  [PART  HI. 

3.  There  is  no  proper  merit  before  God  in 
the  longest  and  most  exact  course  of  obedience, 
but  infinite  demerit  in  one,  even  the  last  act  of 
willful  disobedience.  When  we  have  done  all 
that  is  commanded  us,  we  are  still  unprofitable 
servants ;  for  the  self-suflBcient  God  has  no  more 
need  of  us,  than  a  mighty  monarch  of  the  vilest 
insect  that  creeps  in  the  dust  beneath  his  feet: 
and  our  best  actions,  strictly  speaking,  deserve 
absolutely  nothing  from  our  Creator  and  Pre- 
server, because  we  owe  him  all  we  have,  and 
are,  and  can  possibly  be.  But  if  we  transgress 
in  one  point,  we  ruin  all  our  obedience,  and  ex- 
pose ourselves  to  the  just  penalty  of  his  broken 
law.  The  following  example  may  illustrate  this 
observation : 

If  a  rich  man  gives  a  thousand  meals  to  an 
indigent  neighbor,  he  acts  only  as  a  man — he 
does  nothing  but  his  duty — and  the  Judge  al- 
lows him  no  reward.  But  if  he  gives  him  only 
one  dose  of  poison,  he  acts  as  a  murderer,  and 
must  die  a  shameful  death;  so  greatly  does  one 
act  of  sin  outweigh  a  thousand  acts  of  obedi- 
ence !  How  exceedingly  absurd,  then,  is  the 
common  notion,  that  our  good  works  counter- 
balance our  bad  ones !     Add  to  this  that, 

4.  Guilt  necessarily  rises  in  proportion  to  the 
baseness  of  the  offender,  the  greatness  of  the 
favors  conferred  upon  him,  and  the  dignity  of 
the  person  offended.  An  insulting  behavior  to 
a  servant  is  a  fault,  to  a  magistrate  it  is  a  crime, 
to  a  king  it  is  treason.  And  what  is  willful  sin, 
but  an  injury  offered  by  an  impotent  rebel,  to 


PART  in.]  MATTER  OF  FACT,  7l 

the  infinitely-powerful  Lawgiver  of  the  universe, 
to  the  kindest  of  benefactors,  to  the  gracious 
Creator  and  Preserver  of  men — an  insult  given 
to  the  supreme  Majesty  of  heaven  and  earth, 
in  whose  glorious  presence  the  dignity  of  the 
greatest  potentates  and  ai-changels  as  truly  dis- 
appears as  the  splendor  of  the  stars  in  the  blaze 
of  the  meridian  sun?  Sin,  therefore,  flying  into 
the  face  of  such  a  Lawgiver,  Benefactor,  and 
Monarch,  has  in  it  a  kind  of  infinite  demerit 
from  its  infinite  object ;  and  rebellious,  ungrate- 
ful, wretched  man,  who  commits  it  a  thousand 
times  with  a  thousand  aggravations,  may,  in  the 
nervous  language  of  our  Church,  be  said,  in 
some  sense,  to  deserve  a  thousand  hells,  if  there 
were  so  many. 

THIRTEENTH  ARGUMENT. 

Our  natural  depravity  manifests  itself  by  con- 
stant omissions  of  duty,  as  much  as  by  flagrant 
commission  of  sin,  and  perhaps  much  more. 
Take  one  instance  out  of  many  that  might  be  pro- 
duced. Constant  displays  of  preserving  good- 
ness, and  presents  undeservedly  and  uninter- 
ruptedly bestowed  upon  us,  deserve  a  perpetual 
tribute  of  heart-felt  gratitude :  God  demands  it 
in  his  law ;  and  conscience,  his  agent  in  our 
souls,  declares  it  ought  in  justice  to  be  paid. 

But  where  shall  we  find  a  Deist  properly  con- 
scious of  what  he  owes  the  supreme  Being  for 
his  "  creation,  preservation,  and  all  the  blessings 
of  his  life  ?"  And  where  a  Christian,  duly  sensi- 
ble of  "  God's  inestimable  love  in  the  redemp- 


7^8  AW  APPEAL  TO  [PABT  III. 

tion  of  the  world  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ?" 
A  due  sense  of  his  ever-multiplied  mercies  would 
fill  our  souls  with  never-ceasing  wonder,  and 
make  our  lips  overflow  with  rapturous  praise. 
The  poet's  language  would  suit  our  grateful 
sensations,  and,  without  exaggeration,  paint  the 
just  ardor  of  our  transports  : 

"Bound,  every  heart,  and  every  bosom  burn; 
Praise,  flow  forever,  (if  astonishment 
Will  give  thee  leave,)  my  praise,  forever  flow — 
Praise  ardent,  cordial,  constant,"  etc. 

^  Is  not  any  thing  short  of  this  thankful  frame 
of  mind  a  sin  of  omission,  a  degree  of  ingrati- 
tude, of  which  all  are  naturally  guilty,  and  for 
which,  it  is  to  be  feared,  the  best  owe  ten 
thousand  talents  both  to  Divine  goodness  and 
justice? 

Throw  only  a  few  bones  to  a  dog,  and  you 
win  him;  he  follows  you;  your  word  becomes 
his  law ;  upon  the  first  motion  of  your  hand  he 
flies  through  land  and  water  to  execute  your 
commands :  obedience  is  his  delight,  and  your 
presence  his  paradise:  he  convinces  you  of  it 
by  all  the  demonstrations  of  joy  which  he  is  ca- 
pable of  giving;  and  if  he  unhappily  loses  sight 
of  you,  he  exerts  all  his  sagacity  to  trace  your 
footsteps ;  nor  will  he  rest  till  he  finds  his  ben- 
efactor again. 

Shall  a  brute  be  so  thankful  to  a  man  for  some 
ofikls,  while  man  himself  is  so  full  of  ingratitude 
to  God  who  created  him,  preserves  his  life  from 
destruction,  and  hourly  crowns  him  with  mercies 
and  loving-kindness  ?     How  should  shame  cover 


PART  III.]  MATTER  Ol"  FACT.  73 

our  guilty  faces!  Surely,  if  the  royal  prophet 
could  say  he  was  a  beast  before  God,  may  we 
not  well  confess  that,  in  point  of  gratitude,  we 
are  worse  than  the  dullest  and  most  stupid  part 
of  the  brute  creation?  For  even  the  ox,  says 
the  Lord,  knoweth  his  owner,  and  the  ass  his 
master's  crib ;  but  Israel  doth  not  know  me,  my 
people  doth  not  consider  my  daily  favors.  And 
if  the  very  heathens  affirm,  that  to  call  a  man 
ungrateful  to  a  human  benefactor,  was  to  say  of 
him  all  possible  evil  in  one  word,*  how  can  we 
express  the  baseness  and  depravity  of  mankind, 
who  are  universally  so  imgrateful  to  so  boun- 
teous a  benefactor  as  God  himself. 

FOURTEENTH  ARGUMENT. 

But,  though  we  seem  made  of  cold  inattention, 
when  the  sight  of  Divine  mercies  should  kindle 
our  hearts  into  gratitude  and  praise,  we  soon  get 
out  of  this  languid  frame  of  mind ;  for,  in  the 
pursuit  of  sensual  gratifications,  we  are  all  ac- 
tivity and  warmth ;  we  seem  an  ardent  com- 
pound of  Hfe  and  fire. 

What  can  be  the  reason  of  this  amazing  dif- 
ference ?  What  but  rebellious  sense  and  wanton 
appetite,  raised  at  the  sight  or  idea  of  some  for- 
bidden object !  The  bait  of  pleasure  appears — 
corrupt  nature  summons  all  her  powers — every 
nerve  of  expectation  is  stretched — every  pulse 
of  desire  beats  high — the  blood  is  in  a  general 
ferment — the  spirits  are  in  a  universal  hurry — 

*  Ingratum  si  dixeris,  omnia  dicis. — Jw. 


W  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  m. 

and  though  the  hook  of  a  fatal  consequence  is 
often  apparent,  the  alluring  bait  must  be  swal- 
lowed. The  fear  of  God,  the  most  inestimable 
of  all  treasures,  is  already  gone ;  and  if  the  sin- 
ful gratification  can  not  be  enjoyed  upon  any  other 
terra,  a  good  reputation  shall  go  also.  Reason, 
indeed,  makes  remonstrances ;  but  the  loud 
clamors  of  flesh  and  blood  soon  drown  her  soft 
whispers.  The  carnal  mind  steps  imperiously 
upon  the  throne ;  sense,  that  conquers  the  great- 
est conquerors,  bears  down  all  opposition;  the 
yielding  man  is  led  captive  by  a  brutish  lust; 
and  while  angels  blush,  there  is  a  joy  in  hell  over 
the  actual  and  complete  degradation  of  a  heaven- 
bom  spirit. 

Some,  uideed,  affirm  that  these  conflicts  suit  a 
state  of  probation  and  trial.  But  it  is  evident 
that  either  our  temptations  are  too  violent  for 
our  strength,  or  our  strength  too  weak  for  our 
temptations;  since,  notwithstanding  the  addi- 
tional help  of  Divine  grace,  there  never  was  a 
mere  mortal  over  whom  they  never  triumphed. 

Nor  can  we  exculpate  ourselves  by  pleading, 
that  these  triumphs  of  sense  over  reason  are 
neither  long  nor  frequent.  Alas!  how  many 
perpetrate  an  act  of  wickedness  in  a  moment, 
and  sufier  death  itself  for  a  crime  which  they 
never  repeated ! 

See  that  crystal  vessel.  Its  brightness  and 
brittleness  represent  the  shining  and  delicate 
nature  of  true  virtue.  If  I  let  it  fall,  and  break 
it,  what  avails  it  to  say,  "  I  never  broke  it  before ; 
I  dropped  it  but  once;   I  am  excessively  sorry 


PA»T  m.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  76 

for  my  carelessness;  I  will  set  the  pieces  to- 
gether, and  never  break  it  again  ?"  Will  these 
excuses  and  resolutions  prevent  the  vessel  from 
being  broken — broken  for  ever?  The  reader 
may  easily  make  the  application. 

Even  heathen  moralists,  by  their  fabulous  ac- 
count of  the  companions  of  Ulysses  turned  into 
swine,  upon  drinking  once  of  Circe's  enchanted 
cup,  teach  us,  that  one  fall  into  sensuality  turns 
a  man  into  a  brute,  just  as  one  slip  into  un- 
chastity  or  dishonesty  changes  a  modest  woman 
into  a  strumpet,  or  an  honest  man  into  a  thief. 
Again : 

Ought  not  reason  to  have  as  absolute  a  com- 
mand over  appetite,  as  a  skillful  rider  has  over 
a  well-broken  horse?  But  suppose  we  saw  all 
horsemen  universally  mastered,  one  time  or  other, 
by  their  beasts,  and  forced,  though  but  for  a  few 
minutes,  to  receive  the  bit,  and  go  or  stop  at  the 
pleasure  of  the  wanton  brutes ;  should  we  not 
wonder,  and  justly  infer,  that  man  had  lost  the 
kind  of  superiority  which  he  still  maintains  over 
domestic  animals  ?  And  what,  then,  but  the 
commonness  of  the  case,  can  prevent  our  being 
shocked  when  we  see  rational  creatures  overcome 
and  led  captive  by  carnal  appetites  ?  Is  not  this 
the  wanton,  rebellious  beast,  mounting  upon  his 
vanquished,  dastardly  rider? 

We  may  then  conclude,  that  the  universal  re- 
bellion of  our  lower  faculties  against  our  superior 
powers,  and  the  triumplis  of  sense  over  reason, 
demonstrate  that  human  nature  has  suffered  as 
fatal  a  revolution  as  these  kingdoms  did  when  a 


f^  AK  APFKAL  TO  (PABT  ni. 

degraded  king  was  seen  bleeding  on  the  scafiFold, 
aod  a  base  usurper  lording  it  in  the  seat  of 
majesty. 

FIFTEENTH  ARGUMENT. 

Happy  would  it  be  for  us,  if  our  fall  mani- 
fested itself  only  by  some  transient  advantages 
of  sense  over  reason.  But,  alas !  the  experience 
of  the  best  demonstrates  the  truth  of  Isaiah's 
words.  The  whole  head  is  sick. 

The  say  nothing  of  the  gross  stupidity  and  un- 
conquerable ignorance  that  keeps  the  generahty 
of  mankind  just  above  the  level  of  brutes,  how 
strong,  how  clear  is  the  understanding  of  men  of 
sense  in  worldly  affairs !  How  weak,  how  dark 
in  spiritual  things!  How  few  idiots  are  there 
but  can  distinguish  between  the  shadow  and  the 
substance,  the  cup  and  the  liquor,  the  dress  and 
the  person !  But  how  many  learned  men,  to  this 
day,  see  no  difference  between  water  baptism 
and  spiritual  regeneration,  between  the  means 
of  grace  and  grace  itself,  between  the  form  and 
the  power  of  godliness !  At  our  devotions,  is 
not  our  mind  generally  like  the  roving  butterfly  ? 
and  at  our  favorite  diversions,  and  lucrative  bus- 
iness, like  the  fastening  leech?  Can  it  not  fix 
itself  on  any  thing  sooner  than  on  the  one  thing 
needful;  and  find  out  any  way  before  that  of 
peace  and  salvation? 

What  can  be  more  extravagant  than  our  imag- 
ination? How  often  have  we  caught  this  wild 
power  forming  and  pursuing  phantoms,  building 
and  pulling  down  castles  in  the  air!   how  fre- 


PART  III.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  77 

quently  hath  it  raised  us  into  proud  conceits,  and 
then  sunk  us  into  gloomy  apprehensions !  And 
where  is  the  man  that  it  never  led  into  such 
mental  scenes  of  vanity  and  lewdness,  as  would 
have  made  him  the  object  of  universal  contempt, 
if  the  vail  of  a  grave  and  modest  countenance 
had  not  happily  concealed  him  from  public 
notice  ? 

And  has  our  Memory  escaped  unimpaired  by 
the  fall  ?  Alas !  let  us  only  consider,  how  easily 
we  forget  the  favors  of  our  Creator,  and  recol- 
lect the  injuries  of  our  fellow-creatures;  how 
litile  we  retain  of  a  good  book  or  pious  discourse, 
and  how  much  of  a  play  or  frivolous  conversa- 
tion ;  and  how  exactly  we  remember  an  invitation 
to  a  party  of  pleasure,  while  the  loudest  calls  to 
turn  to  God  and  prepare  for  death,  are  no  sooner 
heard  than  forgotten :  let  us,  I  say,  consider 
these  things,  and  we  shall  be  forced  to  confess, 
that  this  useful  power  loses  like  a  sieve  the  living 
water  of  truth,  drinks  in  like  a  sponge  the  muddy 
streams  of  vanity,  and  is  never  so  retentive  as 
when  it  is  excited  by  revenge,  or  some  other 
detestable  temper. 

"A  wretch  that  is  condemned  to  die  to-mor- 
row can  not  forget  it,"  says  Baxter:  "yet  poor 
sinners,  who  are  uncertain  to  live  an  hour,  and 
certain  speedily  to  see  the  majesty  of  the  Lord, 
to  their  inconceivable  joy  or  terror,  can  forget 
these  things,  for  which  they  have  their  memory, 
and  which,  one  would  think,  should  drown  the 
matters  of  this  world,  as  the  i-eport  of  a  cannon 
does  a  whisper,  or  as  the  sun  obscures  the  poorest 


tt^  AN  APPEAL  TO  [part  HI. 

glow-worm.  0  wonderful  stupidity  of  an  un- 
regenerate  soul!  0  astonishing  distraction  of 
the  ungodly !  That  every  man  can  forget  eter- 
nal joy,  eternal  woe,  the  eternal  God,  and  the 
place  of  their  unchangeable  abode ;  when  they 
stand  even  at  the  door,  and  there  is  but  the  thin 
vail  of  flesh  between  them  and  that  amazing 
sight,  that  eternal  gulf,  into  which  thousands  are 
daily  plunging." 

Nor  does  our  reason*  make  us  amends  for 
the  defects  of  our  other  faculties.  Its  beams,  it 
is  true,  wonderfully  guide  some  persons  through 
the  circle  of  sciences,  and  the  mazes  of  com- 
mercial or  political  aflfairs.  But,  when  it  should 
lead  us  in  the  search  of  the  truth  which  is  after 
godliness,  unless  it  is  assisted  from  above,  how 
are  its  faint  rays  obstructed  by  the  gross  me- 
dium of  flesh  and  blood,  broken  by  that  of  pas- 
sion, and  sometimes  lost  in  that  of  prejudice  ? 
Wise  sons  of  reason,  learned  philosophers,  your 
two  hundred  and  eighty-eight  opinions  con- 
cerning the  chief  good,  are  a  multiplied  proof 
of  my  sad  assertion:  all  miss  the  mark.  Not 
one  of  them  makes  the  supreme  felicity  to 
consist  in  the  knowledge  and  enjoyment  of 
God,  the  amiable  and  adorable  Parent  of  all 
good. 

True  reason,  alas!  is  as  rare  as  true  piety. 
The  poor  thing,  which,  in  spiritual  matters,  the 
world  calls  reason,  is  only  the  ape  of  that  noble 

*  By  reason,  I  mean  that  power  by  which  we  pass  judg- 
ment upon,  and  draw  inferences  from,  what  the  understand- 
ing has  simply  apprehended. 


PART  m.]  MATTER  OF  PACT.  7ft 

faculty.  How  partial,  how  unreasonable*  is  this 
false  pretender !  If  it  does  not  altogether  over- 
look the  awful  realities  of  the  invisible  world, 
which  is  too  frequently  the  case,  how  busy  is  it 
to  reason  away  faith,  and  raise  objections  against 
the  most  evident  truth,f  even  that  which  I  now 

*  Our  earth's  the  bedlarn  of  the  universe, 
Where  Reason  (undiseased  in  heaven)  runs  mad, 
And  nurses  Folly's  children  as  her  own, 
Fond  of  the  foulest. — Young. 

t  A  late  publication,  in  vindication  of  Pelagianism,  ap- 
pears to  me  no  small  instance  of  this.  The  reverend 
author  takes  his  estimate  of  human  nature,  not  from  uni- 
versal experience,  but  his  indulged  imagination ;  not  from 
St.  Paul,  the  chief  of  the  apostles,  but  from  Dr.  Taylor, 
to  whom  he  acknowledges  his  obligations  for  several  of 
the  best  passages  in  his  sermon.  Passing  over  the  expo- 
sition of  nis  text,  where  he  oddly  supposes  that  our  Lord 
meant,  by  the  drawing  of  God,  the  natural  powers  of  man, 
which  is  as  reasonable  as  to  suppose,  that  when  he  said. 
Without  me  Ve  can  do  nothing,  he  meant  that  me  should 
signify  ourselves.  Passing  this  over,  I  shall  just  point  out 
his  capital  mistake.  He  tells  us  that  all  our  faculties  and 
powers  are  good  and  beautiful  in  their  order,  (that  they 
were  so  before  the  fall  is  fully  granted,)  and  tend  naturally 
to  the  happiness  both  of  the  individual  and  of  the  system ; 
and  he  adds,  how  weak  soever  and  imperfect  our  intel- 
lectual faculties  may  be,  yet  to  speak  reproachfully  of 
them  in  general  is  a  species  of  blasphemy  against  our 
Creator.  If  to  expose  the  present  weakness  of  our  rational 
faculties,  and  show  how  greatly  they  are  disordered  and 
impaired  by  the  fall,  is  what  this  divine  calls  speaking 
reproachfully  of  them,  have  not  the  best  men  been  guilty. 
of  this  pretended  blasphemy?  How  far  the  apostles  and 
reformers  carried  it,  may  be  seen  in  the  first  part  of  this 
treatise.  How  he  can  clear  himself  of  it,  as  a  subscriber 
to  the  ninth,  tenth,  and  thirty-fifth  articles  of  our  Church, 
I  can  not  see;  and  by  what  means  he  will  justify  his  con- 
duct to  the  world,  in  receiving  hundreds  a  year  to  maintain 
the  doctrine  of  the  Church  of  England,  while  he  publicly 
exposes  it  as  a  species  of  blasphemy,  is  still  a  greater  mys- 


66  AN  APPEAL  TO  [part  IH. 

contend  for?  And  when  right  reason  has  been 
worsted  by  sense,  how  ready  is  the  impostor  to 
plead  against  the  faculty  which  it  personates! 
How  skillful  in  cloaking  bad  habits  under  the 
genteel  name  of  "  human  foibles !"  And  how 
ingenious  in  defending  the  most  irrational  and 
dangerous  methods  of  losing  time,  as  "innocent 
sports  and  harmless  diversions !" 

tery.  Far  from  seeing  that  all  the  faculties  and  powers,  by 
which  this  is  done,  are  good  and  beautiful,  I  can  not  help 
thinking  that  some  of  them  are  materially  defective;  and 
that  though  such  a  conduct  may  very  much  tend  to  the 
emolument  of  the  individual,  it  has  little  tendency  to  the 
happiness  of  the  system.  For  my  part,  were  I  to  com- 
mence advocate  for  the  uprightness  of  human  nature,  I 
would  save  appearances,  lest  Dr.  Taylor  himself  should 
say,  JVon  defensoribus  istia,  etc.  But,  dropping  this  point, 
I  appeal  to  common  sense:  who  is  most  guilty  of  blaspnemy 
against  our  Creator,  he  who  says  God  made  man  both 
holy  and  happy,  affirming  that  the  present  weakness  of  our 
rational  powers  is  entirely  owing  to  the  original  apostasy 
of  mankind,  or  he  who  intimates  that  the  gracious  Author 
of  our  being  formed  our  intellectual  faculties  weak  and 
imperfect  as  they  now  are?  If  it  is  not  the  latter,  my  un- 
derstanding is  strangely  defective.  In  vain  does  this  learned 
divine  tell  us,  that  the  candle  of  the  Lord  which  was 
lighted  up  in  man  at  first,  when  the  inspiration  of  the 
Almighty  gave  him  understanding,  was  not  extinguished  by 
the  original  apostasy,  but  has  kept  burning  ever  since,  and 
that  the  divine  flame  has  catched  from  father  to  son,  and 
has  been  propagated  quite  down  to  the  present  generation. 
If  it  is  reasonable  to  charge  with  a  species  of  olasphemy 
those  who  reverence  their  Creator  too  much  to  father  our 
present  state  of  imperfection  upon  him,  I  must  confess  my 
reason  fails.  I  have  outlived  the  divine  flame  for  one,  or  it 
never  catched  from  my  father  to  me.  A  fear  lest  some 
well-meaning  person  should  mistake  the  taper  of  Pelagius. 
or  the  lamp  of  Dr.  Taylor,  for  the  candle  of  the  Lord,  and 
follow  it  in  the  destructive  paths  of  error,  extorts  this  note 
from  my  pen.  See  the  objections  that  follow  the  twenty- 
second  Argument. 


PART  ni-l  MATTER  OF  FACT.  81 

These  observations,  which  must  appear  self- 
evident  to  all  who  know  the  world  or  themselves, 
incontestably  prove  the  degeneracy  of  all  our  ra- 
tional powers,  and,  consequently,  the  imiversality 
of  our  natural  corruption. 

SIXTEENTH  ARGUMENT. 

When  the  whole  head  is  sick,  is  not  the  whole 
heart  faint?  Can  our  will,  conscience,  and  af- 
fections run  parallel  to  the  line  of  duty,  when 
our  understanding,  imagination,  memory,  and 
reason,  are  so  much  warped  from  original  recti- 
tude? Impossible!  Experience,  thou  best  of 
judges,  I  appeal  to  thee.  Erect  thy  fair  tribunal 
in  the  reader's  breast,  and  bear  an  honest  testi- 
mony of  the  truth  of  the  following  assertions. 

Our  will,  in  general,  is  full  of  obstinacy;  we 
must  have  our  own  way,  right  or  wrong.  'Tis 
pregnant  with  inconstancy :  we  are  passionately 
fond  of  a  thing  one  day,  and  tired  of  it  the  next ; 
we  form  good  resolutions  in  the  morning,  and 
break  them  before  night.  'Tis  impotent:  when 
we  see  what  is  right,  instead  of  doing  it  with  all 
our  might,  we  frequently  remain  as  inactive  as 
if  we  were  bound  by  invisible  chains;  and  we 
wonder  by  what  charms  the  wheels  of  duty  thus 
stop  against  our  apparent  inclination,  till  we 
discover  that  the  spring  of  our  will  is  broken,  or 
naturally  works  the  wrong  way;  yes,  it  is  not 
only  unable  to  follow  the  good,  that  the  under- 
standing approves,  but  full  of  perverseness  to 
pursue  the  evil,  that  reason  disapproves.  We 
are  prone  to  do,  contrary  to  our  design,  those 
6 


62  AN  APPRAL  TO  [pART  in. 

things  which  breed  remorse  and  wound  con- 
science: and,  sooner  or  later,  we  may  all  say 
with  the  heathen  princess  who  was  going  to 
murder  her  child. 

Video  meliora,  proboque, 
Deteriora  aequor.*  ' 

Nor  is  conscience  itself  untainted.  Alas !  how 
slow  is  it  to  reprove  in  some  cases!  In  others, 
how  apt  not  to  do  it  at  all !  In  one  person,  it 
is  easy  under  mountains  of  guilt ;  and  in  another, 
it  is  unreasonably  scrupulous  about  mere  trifles ; 
it  either  strains  at  a  gnat,  or  swallows  a  camel ; 
when  it  is  alarmed,  in  some  it  shows  itself  ready 
to  be  made  easy  by  every  wrong  method;  in 
others,  it  obstinately  refuses  to  be  pacified  by 
the  right.  To-day,  you  may  with  propriety 
compare  it  to  a  dumb  dog,  that  does  not  bark 
at  a  thief ;  and,  to-morrow,  to  a  snarling  cur, 
that  flies  indifferently  at  a  friend,  a  foe,  or  a 
shadow,  and  then  madly  turns  upon  himself,  and 
tears  his  own  flesh. 

If  conscience,  the  best  power  of  the  uncon- 
verted man,  is  so  corrupt,  good  God!  what  are 
his  affections?  Almost  perpetually  deficient  in 
some,  and  excessive  in  others,  when  do  they  at- 
tain to,  or  stop  at,  the  line  of  moderation  ?  Who 
can  tell  how  oft  he  has  been  the  sport  of  their 
irregularity  and  violence?  One  hour  we  are 
hurried  into  rashness  by  their  impetuosity :  the 
next,  we  are  bound  in  sloth  by  their  inactivity. 

*  If  the  reader  wants  to  know  the  English  of  these 
words,  he  may  find  it  Rom.  vii,  15. 


PART  m.]  MATTER  OF  PACT,  83 

Sometimes  every  blast  of  foolish  hope,  or  ill- 
grounded  fear;  every  gale  of  base  desire,  or 
unreasonable  aversion ;  every  wave  of  idolatrous 
love,  or  sinful  hatred ;  every  surge  of  misplaced 
admiration,  or  groundless  horror;  every  billow 
of  noisy  joy,  or  undue  sorrow,  tosses,  raises,  or 
sinks  our  soul,  as  a  ship  in  a  storm,  which  has 
neither  rudder  nor  ballast.  At  other  times  we 
are  totally  becalmed ;  all  our  sails  are  furled ; 
not  one  breath  of  devout  or  human  aflfection  stirs 
in  our  stoical,  frozen  breast;  and  we  remain 
stupidly  insensible,  till  the  spark  of  temptation, 
dropping  upon  the  combustible  matter  in  our 
hearts,  blows  us  up  again  into  loud  passion ;  and 
then  how  dreadful  and  ridiculous  together  is  the 
new  explosion ! 

Tf  experience  pronounces  that  these  reflec- 
tions are  just,  the  point  is  gained.  Our  whole 
heart  is  faint,  through  the  unaccountable  disor- 
ders of  our  will,  the  lethargy  or  boisterous  fits 
of  our  conscience,  and  the  swooning,  or  high 
fever,  of  our  affections ;  and  we  may,  without 
hypocrisy,  join  in  our  daily  confession,  and  say, 
"  There  is  no  health  in  us." 

SEVENTEENTH  ARGUMENT. 

The  danger  of  these  complicated  maladies  of 
our  souls,  evidences  itself,  by  the  most  fatal  of 
all  symptoms,  our  manifest  alienation  from  God. 
Yes,  shocking  as  the  confession  is,  we  must 
make  it,  if  truth  has  any  dominion  in  our  breast: 
unrenewed  man  loves  not  his  God.  That  eter- 
nal beauty,  for  whose  contemplation,  that  su- 


84  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  III. 

preme  good,  for  whose  enjojonent  he  was  cre- 
ated, is  generally  forgotten,  despised,  or  hated. 
If  the  thought  of  his  Holy  Majesty  presents  itself 
he  looks  upon  it  as  an  intruder ;  it  lays  him  un- 
der as  disagreeable  a  restraint  as  that  which  the 
presence  of  a  grave,  pious  master,  puts  upon  a 
wanton,  idle  servant ;  nor  can  he  quietly  pursue 
his  sinful  courses,  till  he  has  driven  away  the 
troublesome  idea ;  or  imagined,  with  the  epicure, 
a  careless  God,  who  wants  resolution  to  call  him 
to  an  account,  and  justice  to  punish  him  for  his 
iniquity. 

Does  any  one  offer  an  indignity  to  his  favorite 
friend,  or  only  speak  contemptuously  of  the 
object  of  his  esteem,  he  feels  as  if  he  was  the 
person  insulted,  and  reddening  with  indignation, 
directly  espouses  his  cause ;  but  every  body,  the 
meanest  of  his  attendants  not  excepted,  may 
with  impunity  insult  the  King  of  kings  in  his 
presence,  and  take  the  most  profane  liberties 
with  his  name  and  word,  his  laws  and  ministers ; 
he  hears  the  wild  blasphemy,  and  regards  it  not ; 
he  sees  the  horrid  outrage,  and  resents  it  not ;  and 
yet,  amazing  infatuation !  he  pretends  to  love  God. 

If  he  goes  to  the  play,  he  can  fix  his  roving 
eyes  and  wandering  mind,  three  hours  together 
upon  the  same  trifling  object,  not  only  without 
weariness,  but  with  uncommon  delight.  If  he 
has  an  appointment  Avith  the  person  whom  he 
adores  as  a  deity,  his  spirits  are  elevated — ex- 
pectation and  joy  flutter  in  his  dilated  breast — 
he  sweetly  anticipates  the  pleasing  interview,  or 
impatiently  chides  the  slowly-flowing  minutes; 


PART  ni.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  85 

his  feelings  are  inexpressible.  But  if  he  attends 
the  great  congregation,  which  he  too  often  omits 
upon  the  most  frivolous  pretenses,  it  is  rather 
out  of  form  and  decency,  than  out  of  devotion 
and  love ;  rather  with  indifference  or  reluctance, 
than  with  delight  and  transport.  And  when  he 
is  present  there,  how  absent  are  his  thoughts ! 
How  wandering  his  eyes !  How  trifling,  supine, 
irreverent*  his  whole  behavior!  He  would  be 
ashamed  to  speak  to  the  meanest  of  his  servants 
with  as  little  attention  as  he  sometimes  prays  to 
the  Majesty  of  heaven.  Were  he  to  stare  about 
when  he  gives  them  orders,  as  he  does  when  he 
presents  his  supplications  to  the  Lord  of  lords, 
he  would  be  afraid  they  would  think  he  was 
half  drunk,  or  had  a  touch  of  lunacy. 

Suppose  he  still  retains  a  sense  of  outward 
decency,  while  the  Church  goes  through  her 
solemn  ofiBces;  yet  how  heavy  are  his  spirits! 
how  heartless  his  confessions!  how  cold  his 
prayers!  The  blessing  comes  at  last,  and  he  is 
messed  indeed — not  with  the  grace  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  the  fellowship  of  the  Holy 
Ghost;  for  that  he  gladly  leaves  to  "poor  en- 
thusiasts " — but  with  a  release  from  his  confine- 
ment and  tedious  work.  And  now  that  he  has 
"done  his  duty,  and  served  God,"  he  hastens 
away  to  the  company  that  suits  his  taste. 

*  Men  homage  pay  to  men, 
Thoughtless  beneath  whose  dreadful  eye  they  bow 
In  mutual  awe  profound,  of  clay  to  clay, 
Of  guilt  to  guilt,  and  turn  their  backs  on  Thee, 
Great  Sire!  whom  thrones  celestial  ceaseless  sing; 
To  prostrate  angels  an  amazing  scene! — YouNG. 


89  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  III. 

See  him  there.  Do  not  his  very  looks  de- 
clare he  is  in  his  own  element?  With  what 
eagerness  of  spirit,  energj'^  of  gesture,  and  volu- 
bility of  tongue,  does  he  talk  over  his  last  enter- 
tainment, chase,  or  bargain?  Does  not  the  oil 
of  cheerfulness  make  all  his  motions  as  free  and 
easy  as  if  weight  and  friction  had  no  place  at  all 
in  his  hght  and  airy  frame  ? 

Love  of  God,  thou  sweetest,  strongest  of  all 
powers,  didst  thou  ever  thus  metamorphose  his 
soul,  and  impart  such  a  sprightly  activity  to  his 
body?  And  you  that  converse  most  familiarly 
with  him,  did  you  ever  hear  him  say.  Come,  and 
I  will  tell  you  what  the  Lord  has  done  for  my 
soul :  taste,  and  see  how  good  the  Lord  is  ?  No, 
never;  for  out  of  the  abundance  of  the  heart 
the  mouth  speaketh ;  nor  can  it  be  expected  that 
God,  who  hath  no  place  in  his  joyous  reflections, 
should  have  one  in  his  cheerful  conversation. 
On  the  contrary,  it  will  be  matter  of  surprise 
to  those  who  introduce  the  delightful  subject  of 
the  love  of  God,  if  he  does  not  waive  it  oflf,  as 
dull,  melancholy,  or  enthusiastical. 

But  as  he  will  give  you  to  understand  "he  is 
no  hypocrite,  and,  therefore,  confines  devotion  to 
his  closet,"  follow  him  there.  Alas !  he  scarce 
ever  bends  the  knee  to  Him  that  sees  in  secret: 
or,  if  he  says  his  prayers  as  regularly  as  he  winds 
his  watch,  it  is  much  in  the  same  spirit;  for  sup- 
pose he  does  not  hurry  them  over,  or  cut  them 
as  short  as  possible,  yet  the  careless,  formal 
manner  in  which  he  offers  them  up,  indicates  as 
plainly  as  his  public  conduct,  the  averaion  lurk- 


PART  in.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  87 

ing  in  his  heart  against  God:  and  yet  he  fancies 
he  loves  him:  with  a  sneer  that  indicates  self- 
applause,  and  a  pharisaic  contempt  of  others, 
"Away  with  all  your  feelings  and  raptures,"  says 
he;  "this  is  the  love  of  God,  that  we  keep  his 
commandments."  But,  alas!  which  of  them  does 
he  keep?  Certainly  not  the  first;  for  the  Lord 
is  the  supreme  object  of  his  hopes  and  fears, 
his  confidence  and  joy;  nor  yet  the  last;  for 
discontent  and  wrong  desires  are  still  indulged 
in  his  selfish  and  worldly  heart.  How  unfor- 
tunate, therefore,  is  his  appeal  to  the  command- 
ments, by  which  his  secret  enmity  to  the  law, 
government,  and  nature  of  God,  is  brought  to 
the  clearest  light ! 

EIGHTEENTH  ARGUMENT. 

But  as  the  heart-felt  love  of  God  is  supposed 
to  be  downright  enthusiasm  by  some  moralists, 
who,  dashing  in  pieces  the  first  table  of  the  law 
against  the  second,  pretend  that  all  our  duty  to 
God  consists  in  the  love  of  our  neighbor,  let  us 
examine  the  unconverted  man's  charity,  and  see 
whether  he  bears  more  love  to  his  fellow-crea- 
tures than  to  his  Creator. 

Nothing  can  be  more  erroneous  than  his  no- 
tions of  charity.  He  confounds  it  with  the  bare 
giving  of  alms ;  not  considering  that  it  is  possi- 
ble to  do  this  kind  of  good  from  the  most  selfish 
and  uncharitable  motives.  Therefore,  when  the 
fear  of  being  accounted  covetous,  the  desire  of 
passing  for  generous,  the  vanity  of  seeing  his 
name  in  a  hst  of  noble  subscribers,  the  shame 


99  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PABT  IH. 

of  being  outdone  by  his  equals,  the  teazing  im- 
portunity of  an  obstinate  beggar,  the  moving 
address  of  a  solicitor,  whom  he  would  blush  lo 
deny,  or  the  pharisaic  notion  of  making  amends 
for  his  sins,  and  purchasing  heaven  by  his  alms — 
when  any,  I  say,  of  these  sinister  motives  sets 
him  upon  assisting  industrious  poverty,  relieving 
friendless  old  age,  or  supporting  infirm  and  mu- 
tilated indigence,  he  fancies  that  he  gives  an 
indubitable  proof  of  his  charity. 

Sometimes,  too,  he  affixes  to  that  word  the 
idea  of  a  fond  hope  that  every  body  is  going  to 
heaven :  for  if  you  intimate  that  the  rich  volup- 
tuary is  not  with  Lazarus,  in  Abraham's  bosom, 
and  that  the  foolish  virgins  are  not  promiscu- 
ously admitted  to  glory  with  the  wise,  he  won- 
ders at  "your  uncharitableness,"  and  thanks  God 
"he  never  entertained  such  unchristian  thoughts 
of  his  neighbors." 

He  considers  not  that  charity  is  the  fair  off- 
spring of  the  love  of  God,  to  which  he  is  yet 
an  utter  stranger ;  and  that  it  consists  in  a  uni- 
versal, disinterested  benevolence  to  all  mankind, 
our  worst  enemies  not  excepted — a  benevolence 
that  sweetly  evidences  itself  by  bearing  with 
patience  the  evil  which  they  do  to  us,  and  kindly 
doing  them  all  the  good  we  possibly  can,  both 
with  respect  to  their  soul  and  body,  their  prop- 
erty and  reputation. 

If  this  is  a  just  definition  of  charity,  the  un- 
renewed man  has  not  even  the  outside  of  it.  To 
prove  it,  I  might  appeal  to  his  impatience  and 
ill-humor,  his  unkind  words   and  cutting  rail- 


PART  in.]  MATTER  OP  FACT.  8d 

leries,  (for  I  suppose  him  too  moral  ever  to 
slander  or  curse  any  one;)  I  might  mention  his 
supercilious  behavior  to  some,  who  are  entitled 
to  his  affability  ^s  men,  countrymen,  and  neigh- 
bors ;  I  might  expatiate  on  his  readiness  to 
exculpate,  enrich,  or  aggrandize  himself  at  the 
expense  of  others,  whenever  he  can  do  it  with- 
out exposing  himself. 

But,  waiving  all  these  particulars,  I  ask,  Whom 
does  he  truly  love?  You  answer,  "Doubtless 
the  person  to  whom  he  makes  daily  protestations 
of  the  warmest  regard."  But  how  does  he  prove 
this  regard?  Why,  perhaps,  by  the  most  artful 
insinuations,  and  dangerous  attempts  to  rob  her 
of  her  virtue.  Perhaps  he  has  already  gained 
his  end.  Unhappy  Magdalen !  How  much  bet- 
ter would  it  have  been  for  thee  to  have  fallen 
into  the  hands  of  a  highwayman !  Thou  wouldst 
only  have  lost  thy  money,  but  now  thou  art  de- 
spoiled of  the  honor  of  thy  sex,  and  the  peace 
of  thy  mind :  thou  art  robbed  at  once  of  virgin 
innocence,  a  fair  reputation,  and  possibly  a 
healthy  constitution.  If  this  is  a  specimen  of 
the  unconverted  man's  love,  what  must  be  his 
hatred  ? 

But  I  haply  mistake :  "  He  is  no  libertine ;  he 
has  a  virtuous  wife,  and  amiable  children,  and 
he  loves  them,"  say  you,  "  with  the  tenderest 
affection."  I  reply,  that  these  relations,  being 
immortal  spirits,  confined  for  a  few  years  in  a 
tenement  of  clay,  and  continually  on  the  remove 
for  eternity,  his  laudable  regard  for  their  frail 
bodies,  and  proper  care  of  their  temporal  pros- 


90  J^  APPEAL  TO  [fart  HI. 

perity,  are  not  a  sufficient  proof  that  he  loves 
them  in  a  right  manner.  For  even  according  to 
wise  heathens,  our  soul  is  our  better  part,  our 
true  self.*  And  what  tender  concern  does  the 
unrenewed  man  feel  for  the  soul  of  his  bosom 
friend?  Does  he  regard  it  more  than  the  body 
of  his  groom,  or  the  hfe  of  his  horse?  Does  he, 
with  any  degree  of  importunity,  carry  it  daily  in 
the  arms  of  love  and  prayer  to  the  throne  of 
grace  for  life  and  salvation  ?  Does  he,  by  good 
instructions,  and  a  virtuous  example,  excite  his 
children  to  secure  an  eternal  inheritance;  and 
is  he  at  least  as  desirous  to  see  them  wise  and 
pious ;  as  well-bred,  rich,  handsome,  and  great  ? 
Alas!  I  fear  it  is  just  the  reverse.  He  is  proba- 
bly the  first  to  poison  their  tender  minds  with 
some  of  the  dangerous  maxims  that  vanity  and 
ambition  have  invented;  and,  supposing  he  has 
a  favorite  dog,  it  is  well  if  he  is  not  more  anx- 
ious for  the  preservation  of  that  one  domestic 
animal,  than  for  the  salvation  of  all  their  souls. 
If  these  observations  are  founded  upon  matter 
of  fact,  as  daily  experience  demonstrates,  I  ap- 
peal to  common  sense,  and  ask.  Can  the  natural 
man,  with  all  his  fondness,  be  said  to  have  a  true 
love  even  for  his  nearest  relatives  ?  And  is  not 
the  regard  that  he  manifests  for  their  bodies 
more  like  the  common  instinct,  by  which  doves 
cleave  to  their  mates,  and  swallows  provide  for 
their  young,  than  like  the  generous  affection 
which  a  rational  creature  ought  to  bear  to  im- 

*  Nos  non  corpora  sumus:   Corpus  quidem  vas  est  aut 
aliquod  animi  receptaculum. — Cic.  T\tsc.  Qucest,  lib.  1. 


PART  III.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  91 

mortal  spirits,  awfully  hovering  in  a  scale  of 
probation,  which  is  just  going  to  turn  for  hell  or 
heaven  ? 

NINETEENTH  ARGUMENT. 

Nor  is  it  surprising  that  the  unrenewed  man 
should  be  devoid  of  all  true  love  to  his  nearest 
relations;  for  he  is  so  completely  fallen,  that 
he  bears  no  true  love  even  to  himself.  Let  us 
overlook  those  who  cut  their  throats,  shoot, 
drown,  or  hang  themselves.  Let  us  take  no 
notice  of  those  who  sacrifice  a  year's  health  for 
a  night's  revel;  who  inflame  their  blood  into 
fevers,  or  drive  putrefaction  into  their  bones,  for 
the  momentary  gratification  of  a  shameful  appe- 
tite; and  are  so  hot  in  the  pursuit  of  a  base 
pleasure,  that  they  leap  after  it  even  into  the 
jaws  of  an  untimely  grave:  let  us,  I  say,  pass 
by  those  innumerable,  unhappy  victims  of  in- 
temperance and  debauchery,  who  squander  their 
money  upon  panders  and  harlots,  and  have  as 
little  regard  for  their  health  as  for  their  fortune 
and  reputation ;  and  let  us  consider  the  case  of 
those  good-natured,  decent  persons,  who  profess 
to  have  a  real  value  for  both. 

Upon  the  principle  laid  down  in  the  last  Argu- 
ment, may  I  not  ask.  What  love  have  these  for 
their  immortal  part,  their  true  self?  What  do 
they  do  for  their  souls?  Or,  rather,  what  do 
they  not  leave  undone?  And  who  can  show 
less  concern  for  their  greatest  interest  than  they  ? 

Alas !  in  spiritual  matters,  the  wisest  of  them 
seem  on  a  level  with  the  most  foolish.     They 


92  AN  APPEAL  TO  [p ART  III 

anxiously  secure  their  title  to  a  few  possessions 
in  this  transitory  world,  out  of  which  the  stream 
of  time  carries  them  with  unabated  impetuosity, 
while  they  remain*  stupidly  thoughtless  of  their 
portion  in  the  unchangeable  world,  into  which 
they  are  just  going  to  launch ;  they  take  par- 
ticular notice  of  every  trivial  incident  in  life, 
every  idle  report  raised  in  their  neighborhood, 
and  supinely  overlook  the  great  realities  of  death 
and  judgment,  hell  and  heaven. 

You  see  them  perpetually  contriving  how  to 
preserve,  indulge,  and  adorn  their  dying  bodies, 
and  daily  neglecting  the  safety,  welfare,  and 
ornament  of  their  immortal  souls.  So  great  is 
their  folly,  that  earthly  toys  make  them  slight 
heavenly  thrones !  So  willful  their  self-decep- 
tion, that  a  point  of  timef  hides  from  them  a 


*  Time  flies,  death  urges,  knells  call,  heaven  invites, 
Hell  threatens;  all  exerts;  in  eftort  all: 
More  than  creation  labors!  labors  more! 
And  is  there  in  creation,  what,  amidst 
This  tumult  universal,  wing'd  dispatch. 
And  ardent  energy,  supinefy  yawns? 
Man  sleeps — and  man  alone ;  and  man,  whose  fate — 
Fate  irreversible,  entire,  extreme. 
Endless,  hair-hung,  breeze-shaken — o'er  the  gulf 
A  moment  trembles — drops!  and  man,  for  whom 
All  else  is  in  alarm — man,  the  sole  cause 
Of  this  surrounding  storm ! — and  yet  he  sleeps, 
As  the  storm  rock'd  to  rest. — YouNG. 

f  And  is  it  in  the  flight  of  threescore  years 
To  push  eternity  from  human  thought, 
And  bury  souls  immortal  in  the  dust7 
A  soul  immortal  spending  all  her  fires, 
Wasting  her  strength  in  strenuous  idleness; 
Thrown  into  tumult,  raptured,  or  alariu'd, 


PART  HI.]  MATTER  OP  FACT.  93 

boundless  eternity !  So  perverted  is  their  moral 
taste,  that  they  nauseate  the  word  of  truth,  the 
precious  food  of  souls,  and  greedily  run  upon 
the  tempter's  hook,  if  it  is  but  made  of  solid  gold, 
or  gilt  over  with  the  specious  appearance  of 
honor,  or  only  baited  with  the  prospect  of  a  fa- 
vorite diversion.  And  while,  by  uneasy,  fretful 
tempers,  they  too  often  impair  their  bodily 
health,  by  exorbitant  affections,  and  pungent 
cares,  they  frequently  break  their  hearts,  or 
pierce  themselves  through  with  many  sorrows. 

Does  such  a  conduct  deserve  the  name  of 
well-ordered  self-love,  or  preposterous  self- 
hatred?  O  man,  sinful  man,  how  totally  art 
thou  depraved,  if  thou  art  not  only  thine  own 
most  dangerous  enemy,  but  often  thy  most  cruel 
tormentor ! 

TWENTIETH  ARGUMENT. 

This  depravity  is  productive  of  the  most  de- 
testable brood.  When  it  has  suppressed  the 
love  of  God,  perverted  the  love  of  our  neigh- 
bor, and  vitiated  self-love,  it  soon  gives  birth 
to  a  variety  of  execrable  tempers  and  dire  af- 
fections, which  should  have  no  place  but  in  the 
breast  of  fiends,  no  outbreaking  but  in  the 
chambers  of  hell. 

If  you  ask  their  name,  I  answer.  Pride,  that 
odious  vice,  which  feeds  on  the  praises  it  slyly 
procures,   lives  by  the  applause  it  has  meanly 

At  aught  this  scene  can  threaten  or  indulge, 

Resembles  ocean  into  tempest  wrought 

To  waft  a  feather  or  to  drown  a  fly. — YouNG, 


fH  AN  APPKAL  TO  [pART  III. 

courted,  and  is  equally  stabbed  by  the  reproof 
of  a  friend,  and  the  sneer  of  a  foe.  The  spirit 
of  Independence,  which  can  not  bear  control,  is 
galled  by  the  easiest  yoke,  gnaws  the  slender 
cords  of  just  authority,  as  if  they  were  the  heavy 
chains  of  tyrannical  power;  nor  ever  ceases 
struggling  till  they  break,  and  he  can  say:  "  Now 
I  am  my  own  master."  Ambition  and  Vanity, 
which,  like  Proteus,  take  a  thousand  shapes,  and 
wind  a  thousand  ways,  to  climb  up  the  high  seat 
of  power,  shine  on  the  tottering  stage  of  honor, 
wear  the  golden  badge  of  fortune,  glitter  in  the 
gaudy  pomp  of  dress,  and  draw,  by  distinguish- 
ing appearances,  the  admiration  of  a  gaping 
multitude.  Sloth,  which  unnerves  the  soul,  en- 
feebles the  body,  and  makes  the  whole  man  deaf 
to  the  calls  of  duty,  loth  to  set  about  his  busi- 
ness— even  when  want,  fear,  or  shame  drives 
him  to  it — ready  to  postpone  or  omit  it  upon  any 
pretense,  and  willing  to  give  up  even  the  in- 
terests of  society,  virtue,  and  religion,  so  he  may 
saunter  undisturbed,  doze  the  time  away  in  stupid 
inactivity,  or  enjoy  himself  in  that  dastardly  in- 
dolence, which  passes  in  the  world  for  quietness 
and  good-nature.  Envy,  that  looks  with  an  evil 
eye  at  the  good  things  our  competitors  enjoy, 
takes  a  secret  pleasure  in  their  misfortunes,  un- 
der various  pretexts  exposes  their  faults,  slyly 
tries  to  add  to  our  reputation  what  it  detracts 
from  theirs,  and  stings  our  heart  when  they 
eclipse  us  by  their  greater  success  or  superior 
excellences.  Covetousness,  which  is  always 
dissatisfied  with  its  portion,  watches  it  with  tor- 


PART  m.J  MATTER  OF  FACT.  95 

menting  fears,  increases  it  by  every  sordid  means, 
and  turning  its  own  executioner,  justly  pines  for 
want  over  the  treasure  it  madly  saves  for  a  prodi- 
gal heir.  Impatience,  which  frets  at  every  thing, 
finds  fault  with  every  person,  and  madly  tears 
herself  under  the  distressing  sense  of  a  present 
evil,  or  the  anxious  expectation  of  an  absent 
good.  Wrath,  which  distorts  our  faces,  racks 
our  breasts,  alarms  our  households,  threatens, 
curses,  stamps,  and  storms,  even  upon  imaginary 
or  trifling  provocations.  Jealousy,  that  through 
a  fatal  skill  in  diabolical  optics,  sees  contempt  in 
all  the  words  of  a  favorite  friend,  discovers  in- 
fidelity in  all  his  actions,  lives  upon  the  wicked 
suspicions  it  begets,  and  turns  the  sweets  of  the 
mildest  passion  into  wormwood  and  gall.  Idola- 
trous love,  which  preys  upon  the  spirits,  con- 
sumes the  flesh,  tears  the  throbbing  heart,  and 
when  it  is  disappointed,  frequently  forces  its 
wretched  slaves  to  lay  violent  hands  upon  them- 
selves. Hatred  of  our  fellow-creatures,  which 
keeps  us  void  of  tender  benevolence,  a  chief 
ingredient  in  the  bliss  of  angels,  and  fills  us  with 
some  of  the  most  unhappy  sensations  belonging 
to  accursed  spirits.  Malice,  which  takes  an  un- 
natural, hellish  pleasure,  in  teasing  beasts,  and 
hurting  men,  in  their  persons,  properties,  or  repu- 
tation.    And  the  off"spring  of  malice.  Revenge,* 


*  Man  hard  of  heart  to  man !  of  horrid  things 
Most  horrid!     Midst  stupendous,  highly  strange! 
Yet  oft  his  courtesies  are  smoother  wrongs; 
Pride  brandishes  the  favors  he  confers, 
And  contumelious  his  humanity: 


96*  AK  APPEAL  TO  [pABT  ni. 

who  always  thirsts  after  mischief  or  blood;  and 
shares  the  only  dehght  of  devils,  when  he  can 
repay  a  real  or  fancied  injury  sevenfold.  Hy- 
pocrisy, who  borrows  the  cloak  of  religion ;  bids 
her  flexible  muscles  imitate  vital  piety;  attends 
at  the  sacred  altars,  to  make  a  show  of  her  fic- 
titious devotion;  there  raises  her  affected  zeal 
in  proportion  to  the  number  of  the  spectators; 
calls  upon  God  to  get  the  praise  of  man;  and 
lifts  up  adulterous  eyes  and  thievish  hands  to 
heaven,  to  procure  herself  the  good  things  of  the 
earth.  And  Hypocrisy's  sister,  narrow-hearted 
Bigotry,  who  pushes  from  her  Civility  and  Good- 
nature, stops  her  ears  against  arguments  and 
entreaties ;  calls  Huguenots,  infidels.  Papists,  or 
heretics,  all  who  do  not  directly  subscribe  to 
her  absurd  or  impious  creeds;  dogs  them  with 
a  malignant  eye ;  throws  stones  or  dirt  at  them 
about  an  empty  ceremony,  or  an  indifferent 
opinion ;  and  at  last,  if  she  can,  sets  churches  or 
kingdoms  on  fire,  about  a  turban,  a  surplice, 
or  a  cowl.  Perfidiousness,  who  puts  on  the 
looks  of  true  benevolence,  speaks  the  language 
of  the  warmest  affection ;  with  solemn  protesta- 
tions invites  men  to  depend  on  her  sincerity, 
while  she  lays  a  deep  plot  for  their  sudden  de- 
struction; and,  with  repeated  oaths,  beseeches 
Heaven  to  be  witness  of  her  artless  innocence. 

What  then  his  vengeknce !    Hear  it  not,  ye  stars ! 
And  thou,  pale  moon !  turn  paler  at  the  sound, 

Man  is  to  man  the  sorest,  surest  ill- 

Heaven's  Sovereign  saves  all  beings  but  himself, 
That  hideous  sight,  a  naked  human  heart. — YoUNG. 


PAUT  ni.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  97 

while  she  moves  the  center  of  hell  to  accomplish 
her  dire  designs.  The  fatal  hour  is  come — her 
stratagem  has  succeeded — and  she  now  kisses 
and  betrays,  drinks  health  and  poisons — oflfers 
a  friendly  embrace,  and  gives  a  deadly  stab. 
Despair,  who  scorns  to  be  beholden  to  Mercy, 
gives  the  lie  to  all  the  declarations  issued  from 
the  throne  of  grace,  obstinately  turns  his  wild 
eyes  from  the  great  expiatory  sacrifice;  and,  at 
last,  impatient  to  drink  the  cup  of  trembling, 
wildly  looks  for  some  weapon  to  destroy  him- 
self. Distraction,  begotten  by  the  shoclang 
mixture  of  two  or  more  of  these  infernal  pas- 
sions, raised  to  the  highest  degree  of  extrava- 
gance— distraction,  that  wrings  her  hands,  tears 
her  disheveled  hair,  fixes  her  ghastly  eyes,  turns 
her  swimming  brains,  quenches  the  last  spark  of 
reason,  and,  like  a  fierce  tiger,  must  at  last  be 
chained  by  the  hand  of  caution,  and  confined 
with  iron  bars  in  her  dreary  dwelling. 

And  to  close  the  dismal  train.  Self-murder, 
who  always  points  wretched  mortals  to  ponds 
and  rivers,  or  presents  them  with  cords,  razors, 
pistols,  daggers,  and  poison,  and  perpetually 
urges  them  to  the  choice  of  one  of  them.  "You 
are  guilty,  miserable  creatures,"  whispers  he: 
"  the  sun  of  prosperity  is  forever  set,  the  deep- 
est night  of  distress  is  come  upon  you ;  you  are 
in  a  hell  of  woe ;  the  hell  prepared  for  Satan  can 
not  be  worse  than  that  which  you  feel,  but  it  may 
be  more  tolerable ;  take  this,  and  boldly  force 
your  passage  out  of  the  cursed  state  in  which 
you  groan."  He  persuades,  and  his  desperate 
1 


98  AK  APPEAL  TO  [pART  III. 

victims,  tired  of  the  company  of  their  fellow- 
mortals,  fly  for  refuge  to  that  of  devils!  they 
shut  their  eyes,  and,  horrible  to  say!  but  how 
much  more  horrible  to  do !  deUberately  venture 
from  one  hell  into  another,  to  seek  ease ;  or,  to 
speak  with  more  truth,  leap,  with  all  the  miseries 
of  a  known  hell,  into  all  the  horrors  of  one  which 
is  unknown. 

And  are  your  hearts,  0  ye  sons  of  men,  the 
favorite  seats  of  this  infernal  crew  ?  Then  shame 
on  the  wretch  that  made  the  first  panegyric  on 
the  dignity  of  human  nature !  He  proved  my 
point;  he  began  in  pride,  and  ended  in  distrac- 
tion. 

Detestable  as  these  vices  and  tempers  are, 
where  is  the  natural  man  that  is  always  free  from 
them  ?  Where  is  even  the  child  ten  years  old, 
who  never  felt  most  of  these  vipers,  upon  some 
occasion  or  other,  shooting  their  venom  through 
his  lips,  darting  their  baleful  influence  through 
his  eyes,  or  at  least  stirring  and  hissing  in  his 
disturbed  breast  ?  If  any  one  never  felt  them, 
he  may  be  pronounced  more  than  mortal ;  but 
if  he  has,  his  own  experience  furnishes  him  with 
a  sensible  demonstration,  that  he  is  a  fallen 
spirit,  infected  with  the  poison  that  rages  in  the 
devil  himself. 

TWENTY- FIRST  ARGUMENT. 

Bad  roots,  which  vigorously  shoot  in  the  spring, 
will  naturally  produce  their  dangerous  fruit  in 
summer.  We  may,  therefore,  go  one  step  far- 
ther, and  ask,  where  is  the  man  thirty  years  old. 


PART  m.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  99 

whose  depravity  has  not  broken  out  into  the 
greatest  variety  of  sinful  acts  ?  Among  the  per- 
sons of  that  age,  who  never  were  esteemed  worse 
than  their  neighbors,  shall  we  find  a  forehead 
that  never  betrayed  daring  insolence  ?  A  cheek, 
that  never  indicated  concealed  guilt  by  an  in- 
voluntary blush,  or  unnatural  paleness  ?  A  neck, 
that  never  was  stretched  out  in  pride  and  vain 
confidence?  An  eye,  that  never  cast  a  disdain- 
ful, malignant,  or  wanton  look?  An  ear,  that 
an  evil  curiosity  never  opened  to  frothy,  loose, 
or  defaming  discourse?  A  tongue,  that  never 
was  tainted  with  unedifying,  false,  indecent,  or 
imcharitable  language?  A  palate,  that  never 
became  the  seat  of  luxurious  indulgence?  A 
throat,  that  never  was  the  channel  of  excess  ? 
A  stomach,  that  never  felt  the  oppressive  load 
of  abused  mercies  ?  Hands,  that  never  plucked 
or  touched  the  forbidden  fruit  of  pleasing  sin? 
Feet,  that  never  once  moved  in  the  broad,  down- 
ward road  of  iniquity  ?  And  a  bosom,  that 
never  heaved  under  the  dreadful  workings  of 
some  exorbitant  passion  ?  Where,  in  short,  is 
there  a  face  ever  so  disagreeable,  that  never  was 
the  object  of  self-worship  in  a  glass  ?  And  where 
a  body,  however  deformed,  that  never  was  set 
up  as  a  favorite  idol  by  the  fallen  spirit  that  in- 
habits it? 

If  iniquity  thus  works  by  all  the  powers,  and 
breaks  out  through  all  the  parts  of  the  human 
body,  we  may  conclude,  by  woeful  experience, 
not  only  that  the  plague  of  sin  is  begun,  but  that 
it  rages  with  universal  fury;  and  to  use  again 


100  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  III. 

the  evangelical  prophet's  words,  that  from  the 
sole  of  the  foot,  even  to  the  head  of  the  natural 
man,  there  is  no  spiritual  soundness  io  him,  but 
wounds,  and  bruises,  and  putrefying  sores. 

TWENTY-SECOND  ARGUMENT. 

What  can  be  said  of  each  individual,  may,  with 
the  same  propriety,  be  aflSrmed  of  all  the  differ- 
ent nations  of  the  earth.  Let  an  impartial  judge 
take  four  unconverted  men  or  children,  from  the 
four  parts  of  the  world.  Let  him  examine 
their  actions,  and  trace  them  back  to  their  spring ; 
and,  if  he  makes  some  allowance  for  the  acci- 
dental diflFerence  of  their  climate,  constitution, 
taste,  and  education,  he  will  soon  find  their  dis- 
position as  equally  earthly,  sensual,  and  devilish, 
as  if  they  had  all  been  cast  in  the  same  mold. 
Yes,  as  oak-trees  are  oaks  all  the  world  over, 
though  by  particular  circumstances  some  grow 
taller  and  harder,  and  some  more  knotted  and 
crooked  than  others,  so  all  unregenerate  men 
resemble  one  another;  for  all  are  proud,  self- 
willed,  impenitent,  and  lovers  of  pleasure  more 
than  lovers  of  God. 

Do  not  sloth,  gluttony,  drunkenness,  and  un- 
cleanness ;  cheating,  defrauding,  stealing,  and 
oppression;  lying,  perjury,  treachery,  and  cru- 
elty, stalk  openly  or  lurk  secretly  every- where  ? 
Are  not  all  these  vices  predominant  among  black 
and  white  people,  among  savages  and  civilized 
nations,  among  Turks  and  Jews,  heathens  and 
Christians,  whether  they  live  on  the  banks  of  the 
Ganges  or  the  Thames,  the  Mississippi  or  the 


PART  in.]  MATTER  OP  FACT.  101 

Seine  ?  whether  they  starve  in  the  snows  of  Lap- 
land, or  burn  in  the  sands  of  Guinea? 

O  sin !  thou  fatal  pest ;  thou  soul-destroying 
plague !  would  to  God  thy  fixed  abode  were 
only  in  the  Levant !  and  that,  like  the  external 
pestilence,  thou  wert  chiefly  confined  to  the 
Turkish  dominions !  But,  alas  !  the  gross  im- 
morality and  profaneness — the  various  crimes 
and  villanies — the  desperate  impiety  and  wild 
blasphemy,  under  which  every  kingdom  and  city 
has  groaned,  and  still  continues  to  do  night  and 
day,  over  the  face  of  the  whole  earth,  are  black 
spots  so  similar,  and  symptoms  so  equally  terri- 
ble, that  we  are  obliged  to  confess  they  must 
have  a  common  internal  principle — which  can  be 
no  other  than  a  bad  habit  of  soul — a  fallen,  cor- 
rupted nature.  Yes,  the  universality  and  equality 
of  the  effects  show  to  an  unprejudiced  mind 
that  the  cause  is  universal,"  and  equally  inter- 
woven with  the  nature  which  is  common  to  all 
nations,  and  remains  the  same  in  all  countries 
and  ages. 

FIVE  OBJECTIONS. 

I.  If  the  self-righteous  moralist  answers  that 
"  sin  and  wickedness  are  not  so  universal  as  this 
argument  supposes,"  I  reply,  that  the  more  we 
are  acquainted  with  ourselves,  with  the  history 
of  the  dead,  and  secret  transactions  of  the  living, 
the  more  we  are  convinced,  that  if  all  are  not 
guilty  of  outward  enormities,  all  are  deeply 
tainted  with  spiritual  wickedness. 

Even  those  excellent  persons  who,  like  Jere- 


lOfi  AN  APPEAL  TO  [pART  HI. 

miah,  have  been  in  part  sanctified  before  they 
came  forth  out  of  the  womb,  can,  from  sad  ex- 
perience, confess  with  him  that  the  heart  is  de- 
ceitful above  all  things,  and  say,  with  David,  my 
heart  showeth  me  the  wickedness  of  the  ungodly. 

Thousands,  indeed,  boast  of  the  goodness  of 
their  hearts ;  they  flatter  themselves  that  to  be 
righteous,  it  is  enough  to  avoid  gross  acts  of  in- 
temperance and  injustice;  with  the  Pharisees, 
they  shut  their  eyes  against  the  destructive  na- 
ture of  the  love  of  the  world,  the  thirst  of  praise, 
the  fear  of  men,  the  love  of  ease,  sloth,  sensu- 
ality, indevotion,  self-righteousness,  discontent, 
impatience,  selfishness,  carnal  security,  unbelief, 
hardness  of  heart,  and  a  thousand  other  spiritual 
evils.  Full  of  self-ignorance,  like  Peter,  they 
imagine  there  is  no  combustible  matter  of  wick- 
edness in  their  breasts,  because  they  are  not 
actually  fired  by  the  spark  of  a  suitable  tempta- 
tion. And  when  they  hear  what  their  corrupt 
nature  may  one  day  prompt  them  to,  they  cry 
out,  with  Hazael,  Am  I  a  dog,  that  I  should  do 
this  thing?  Nevertheless,  by  and  by  they  do  it, 
if  not  outwardly,  as  he  did,  at  least  in  their  vain 
thoughts  by  day,  or  wicked,  lewd  imaginations 
by  night.  So  true  is  the  wise  man's  saying.  He 
that  trusteth  his  own  heart  is  a  fool. 

II.  "  If  histories  give  us  frequent  accounts  of 
the  notorious  wickedness  of  mankind — say  the 
advocates  for  human  excellence — it  is  because 
private  virtue  is  not  the  subject  of  history ;  and 
to  judge  of  the  moral  rectitude  of  the  world  by 
the   corruption   of    courts,  is  as  absurd  as  to 


PART  m.]      MATTER  OF  FACT.  103 

estimate  the  health  of  a  people  from   an   in- 
firmary." 

And  is  private  vice  any  more  the  subject  of 
history  than  private  virtue?  If  it  were,  what 
folios  would  contain  the  fulsome  and  black  ac- 
counts of  all  the  lies  and  scandal — the  secret 
grudges  and  open  quarrels — the  filthy  talking 
and  malicious  jesting — the  unkind  or  unjust  be- 
havior— the  gross  or  refined  intemperance,  which 
deluge  both  town  and  country? 

Suppose  the  annals  of  any  one  numerous 
family  were  published,  how  many  volumes  might 
be  filled  with  the  detail  of  the  undue  fondness, 
or  forbidden  coldness — the  variance,  animosity, 
and  strife,  which  break  out  between  husbands 
and  wives,  parents  and  children,  brothers  and 
sisters,  masters  and  domestics,  upper  and  lower 
servants,  &c.  ?  What  ridiculous,  impertinent 
scenes  would  be  opened  to  public  view !  What 
fretfulness,  dissimulation,  envy,  jealousy,  tale- 
bearing, deceit!  What  concealed  suspicions, 
aggravated  charges,  false  accusations,  underhand 
dealings,  imaginary  provocations,  glaring  par- 
tiality, insolent  behavior,  loud  passions ! 

Was  even  the  best  moralist  to  write  the  me- 
moirs of  his  own  heart,  and  give  the  public  a 
minute  account  of  all  his  impertinent  thoughts 
and  wild  imaginations,  how  many  paragraphs 
would  make  him  blush !  How  many  pages,  by 
presenting  the  astonished  reader  with  a  blank  or 
blot,  would  demonstrate  the  truth  of  St.  Paul's 
assertion,  They  are  all  gone  out  of  the  way, 
there  is  none  that  doeth  good,  none  but  spoils 


t04  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PABT  III. 

his  best  works  by  a  mixture  of  essential  evil! 
Far,  then,  from  finding*  "  those  vastly-superior 
numbers,  who  in  safe  obscurity  are  virtuously 
and  innocently  employed,"  we  may  every-where 
Bee  the  truth  of  the  confession  which  our  ob- 
jectors make  in  the  church,  "  There  is  no  health 
in  us," 

I  say  every-where ;  for  is  cabal  confined  to 
court,  any  more  than  lewdness  to  tlie  army,  and 
profaneness  to  tlie  navy?  Does  not  the  same 
spirit  of  self-interest  and  intrigue  which  influences 
the  choice  of  ministers  of  state,  preside  also 
at  the  election  of  members  of  Parliament,  may- 
ors of  corporate  towns,  burgesses  of  boroughs, 
and  petty  officers  in  a  country  parish  ?  We  may, 
then — notwithstanding  the  unfortunate  compari- 
son on  which  this  objection  is  founded — con- 
clude, without  absurdity,  that,  as  all  men,  sooner 
or  later,  by  pain,  sickness,  and  death,  evidence 
their  natural  weakness  and  mortality — whether 
they  live  in  infirmaries,  palaces,  or  cottages — 
so  all  men,  sooner  or  later,  by  their  thoughts, 
words,  and  actions,  demonstrate  their  natural 
corruption,  whether  they  crowd  the  jail  yard, 
the  drawing-room,  or  the  obscure  green  of  a 
country  village. 

III.  The  same  objectors  will  probably  reply: 
"  If  corruption  is  universal,  it  can  not  be  said  to 
be  equal ;  for  numbers  lead  a  very  harmless,  and 
not  a  few  a  very  useful  life." 

To  this  I  answer,  that  all  have  naturally  an 
evil  heart  of  unbelief,  forgetful  of,  and  departing 

*  See  the  note  on  page  47. 


PAET  III.]  MATTER  OP  FACT.  106 

from  the  living  God.  In  this  respect,  there  is 
no  difference ;  all  the  world  is  guilty  before  God. 
But,  thanks  be  to  the  Father  of  mercies !  all  do 
not  remain  so.  Many  cherish  the  seed  of  su- 
pernatural grace,  which  we  have  from  the  Re- 
deemer; they  bow  to  his  scepter,  become  new 
creatures,  depart  from  iniquity,  and  are  zealous 
of  good  works.  And  the  same  gracious  power 
that  has  renewed  them  is  at  work  upon  thou- 
sands more,  hourly  restraining  them  from  much 
evil,  and  daily  exciting  them  to  many  useful 
actions. 

With  respect  to  the  harmlessness,  for  which 
some  unrenewed  persons  are  remarkable,  it  can 
not  spring  from  a  better  nature  than  that  of  their 
fellow-mortals;  for  the  nature  of  all  men,  like 
that  of  all  wolves,  is  the  same  throughout  the 
whole  species.  It  must  then  be  owing  to  the 
restraining  grace  of  God,  or  to  a  happier  con- 
stitution, a  stricter  education,  a  deeper  sense  of 
decency,  or  a  greater  regard  for  their  character; 
perhaps  only  to  the  fear  of  consequences,  and 
to  the  want  of  natural  boldness,  or  of  a  suitable 
temptation  and  fair  opportunity  to  sin.  Nor  are 
there  few  who  pass  for  temperate,  merely  be- 
cause the  diabolical  pride,  lurking  in  their  hearts, 
scorns  to  stoop  so  low  as  to  indulge  their  beastly 
appetites:  while  others  have  the  undeserved 
reputation  of  good-natured,  because  they  find 
more  delight  in  quietly  gratifying  their  sheepish 
indolence  or  brutal  desires,  than  in  yielding  to 
the  uneasy,  boisterous  tempers,  which  they  have 
in  common  with  devils. 


106  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  lU. 

As  to  the  virtues  by  which  some  of  the  un- 
converted distinguish  themselves  from  others, 
they  either  spring  from  God's  preventing  grace 
or  are  only  vices  in  disguise.  The  love  of  praise, 
the  desire  of  honor,  and  the  thirst  of  gold,  ex- 
cite thousands  to  laudable  designs  and  useful 
actions.  Wicked  men,  set  on  work  by  these 
powerful  springs,  do  lying  wonders  in  the  moral 
world,  as  the  magicians  did  in  the  land  of  Egypt. 
They  counterfeit  divine  grace,  and  for  a  time 
seem  even  to  outdo  believers  themselves.  Hence 
it  is,  that  we  frequently  see  the  indolent  indus- 
trious, the  coward  brave,  the  covetous  charitable, 
the  Pharisee  religious,  the  Magdalen  modest, 
and  the  dastardly  slave  of  his  lusts  a  bold  as- 
serter  of  public  liberty.  But  the  Searcher  of 
hearts  is  not  deceived  by  fair  appearances:  he 
judges  of  their  actions  according  to  the  motives 
whence  they  spring,  and  the  ends  for  which  they 
are  performed.  You  are,  says  he  to  all  these 
seemingly-virtuous  sinners,  like  whited  sepul- 
chers,  which  indeed  appear  beautiful  outwardly, 
but  within  are  full  of  dead  men's  bones  and  of 
all  uncleanness. 

Were  I  to  describe  these  saints  of  the  world 
by  a  comparison,  I  would  say  that  some  of  them 
resemble  persons  who  artfully  conceal  their  ul- 
cers, under  the  most  agreeable  appearance  of 
cleanliness  and  health.  Many  that  admire  their 
faces  and  looks,  little  suspect  what  a  putrid,  viru- 
lent fluid  runs  out  of  their  secret  sores.  Others 
of  them,  whose  hypocrisy  is  not  of  so  gross  a 
kind,  are  like  persons  infected  with  a  mortal 


PART  III.]  MATTER  OP  PACT.  107 

disease,  who,  though  the  mass  of  their  blood  is 
tainted,  and  some  noble  part  attacked,  still  walk 
about,  do  business,  and  look  as  fresh-colored 
as  if  they  were  the  picture  of  health.  Ye  sons 
of  ^sculapius,  who,  without  feeling  their  pulse, 
and  carefully  weighing  every  symptom,  pro- 
nounce them  very  well  upon  their  look  alone,  do 
ye  not  blunder  in  physic,  just  as  my  objectors 
do  in  divinity? 

IV.  But  still  they  urge,  that  "  it  is  wrong  to 
father  our  sinfulness  upon  a  pretended  natural 
depravity,  when  it  may  be  entirely  owing  to  the 
force  of  ill  example,  the  influence  of  a  bad  edu- 
cation, or  the  strong  ferments  of  youthful  blood." 

All  these,  I  reply,  like  rich  soil  and  rank 
manure,  cause  original  corruption  to  shoot  the 
higher,  but  do  not  form  its  pernicious  seeds. 
That  these  seeds  lurk  within  the  heart,  before 
they  are  forced  up  by  the  heat  of  temptation, 
appears  indubitable,  if  we  consider,  1.  That  all 
children,  on  particular  occasions,  manifest  some 
early  inclinations  to  those  sins,  which  the  feeble- 
ness of  their  bodily  organs,  and  the  want  of 
proper  ferments  in  their  blood,  do  not  permit 
them  to  commit:  2.  That  infants  betray  envy, 
ill-humor,  impatience,  selfishness,  anger,  and 
obstinacy,  even  before  they  can  take  particular 
notice  of  ill  examples,  and  understand  bad  coun- 
sels :  and  3.  That  though  un cleanness,  fornica- 
tion, and  adultery,  on  account  of  the  shame  and 
danger  attending  them,  are  committed  with  so 
much  secrecy,  that  the  examples  of  them  are 
seldom,  if  ever  given  in  public,  they  are  never- 


108  AN  APPBAL  TO  [PABT  HI. 

theless  some  of  the  crimes  which  are  most  uni- 
versally or  eagerly  committed. 

Besides,  if  we  were  not  more  inclined  to  vice 
than  virtue,  good  examples  would  be  as  common, 
and  have  as  much  force,  as  bad  ones.  There- 
fore, the  generality  of  bad  examples  can  not  arise 
but  from  the  general  sinfulness  of  man ;  and  to 
account  for  this  general  sinfulness  by  the  gener- 
ality of  bad  examples,  is  begging  the  question, 
and  not  proving  the  point. 

Add  to  this,  that  as  weeds,  since  the  curse, 
grow  even  in  fields  sown  with  the  best  wheat, 
so  vice,  since  the  fall,  grows  in  the  midst  of  the 
best  examples,  and  the  most  excellent  educa- 
tion: witness  the  barbarous  crimes  committed 
by  pious  Jacob's  children,  and  penitent  Adam's 
eldest  son. 

V".  "  But  if  Cain  sinned,"  say  our  objectors, 
"and  all  mankind  sin  also,  it  is  no  more  than 
Adam  himself  once  did  by  his  own  free  choice, 
though  he  was  created  and  exempt  from  original 
depravity  as  an  angel.  What  need  is  there  then 
to  suppose,  that  he  communicated  to  his  pos- 
terity an  inbred  proneness  to  sin  ?" 

To  this  I  reply :  it  is  not  one  accident  or  sin- 
gle event,  but  a  continual  repetition  of  the  same 
event,  that  proves  a  proneness.  If  a  man,  who 
is  perfectly  in  his  senses,  by  some  unforeseen 
accident  falls  into  a  fit  of  madness,  we  may  ac- 
count for  his  misfortune  from  that  accident ;  and 
no  certain  judgment  can  be  formed  of  the  bodily 
habit  of  his  family.  But  if  all  his  children, 
through  a  hundred  generations,  are  not  only  sub- 


PART  III.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  100 

ject  to  the  same  mad  fits,  but  also  die  in  conse- 
quence of  them,  in  all  sorts  of  climates,  and 
under  all  sorts  of  physicians,  common  sense 
will  not  allow  us  to  doubt,  that  it  is  now  a  family 
disorder,  incurable  by  human  art.  The  man  is 
Adam,  the  family  mankind,  and  the  madness  sin. 
Reader,  you  are  desired  to  make  the  application. 

TWENTr-THIRD  ARGUMENT. 

"  But  all  are  not  employed  in  sin  and  wicked- 
ness, for  many  go  through  a  constant  round  of 
innocent  diversions ;  and  these,  at  least,  must  be 
innocent  and  happy."  Let  us  then  consider  the 
amusements  of  mankind:  or,  rather,  without 
stopping  to  look  at  the  wise  dance  of  the  Israel- 
ites round  the  golden  calf,  and  the  modest,  sober, 
and  humane  diversions  of  the  heathens,  in  the 
festivals  of  their  lewd,  drunken,  and  bloody 
gods,  let  us  only  see  how  far  our  own  pleasures 
demonstrate  the  innocence  and  happiness  of 
mankind. 

How  excessively  foolish  are  the  plays  of  chil- 
dren! How  full  of  mischief  and  cruelty  the 
sports  of  boys !  How  vain,  foppish,  and  frothy 
the  joys  of  young  people !  And  how  much  be- 
low the  dignity  of  upright,  pure  creatures,  the 
snares  that  persons  of  different  sexes  perpetually 
lay  for  each  other !  When  they  are  together,  is 
not  this  their  favorite  amusement,  till  they  are 
deservedly  caught  in  the  net  which  they  impru- 
dently spread  ?     But  see  them  asunder. 

Here,  a  circle  of  idle  women,  supping  a  de- 
coction of  Indian  herbs,  talk  or  laugh  all  to- 


110  AK  APPEAL  TO  [pART  III. 

getber,  like  so  many  chirping  birds  or  chattering 
monkeys,  and,  scandal  excepted,  every  way  to 
as  good  purpose ;  and  there,  a  club  of  grave  men 
blow,  by  the  hour,  clouds  of  stinking  smoke  out 
of  their  mouth,  or  wash  it  down  their  throat  with 
repeated  draughts  of  intoxicating  liquors.  The 
strong  fumes  have  already  reached  their  heads ; 
and  while  some  stagger  home,  others  triumph- 
antly keep  the  field  of  excess;  though  one  is 
already  stamped  with  the  heaviness  of  the  ox, 
another  worked  up  to  the  fierceness  and  roar  of 
the  lion,  and  a  third  brought  down  to  the  filthi- 
ness  of  the  vomiting  dog. 

Leave  them  at  their  manly  sport  to  follow  those 
musical  sounds,  mixed  with  a  noise  of  stamping, 
and  you  will  find  others  profusely  perspiring,  and 
violently  fatiguing  themselves,  in  skipping  up 
and  down  a  room  for  a  whole  night,  and  ridicu- 
lously turning  their  backs  and  faces  to  each  other 
a  hundred  diflferent  ways.  Would  not  a  man  of 
sense  prefer  running  ten  miles  upon  a  useful 
errand,  to  this  useless  manner  of  losing  his  rest, 
heating  his  blood,  exhausting  his  spirits,  unfitting 
himself  for  the  duties  of  the  following  day,  and 
laying  the  foundation  of  a  putrid  fever  or  a  con- 
sumption, by  breathing  the  midnight  air  cor- 
rupted by  clouds  of  dust,  by  the  unwholesome 
fumes  of  candles,  and  by  the  more  pernicious 
steam  that  issues  from  the  bodies  of  many  per- 
sons, who  use  a  strong  exercise  in  a  confined 
place  ? 

In  the  next  room,  indeed,  they  are  more  quiet ; 
but  are  they  more  rationally  employed  ?     Why 


PART  III. J      MATTER  OF  FACT.  Ill 

do  they  so  earnestly  rattle  those  ivory  cubes, 
and  so  anxiously  study  those  packs  of  loose 
spotted  leaves?  Is  happiness  graven  upon  the 
one,  or  stamped  upon  the  other?  Answer,  ye 
gamesters,  who  curse  your  stars  as  ye  go  home, 
with  an  empty  purse  and  a  heart  full  of  rage. 

"We  hope  there  is  no  harm  in  taking  an  in- 
nocent game  at  cards,"  reply  a  ridiculous  party 
of  superannuated  ladies ;  "  gain  is  not  our  aim, 
we  only  play  to  kill  time."  You  are  not,  then, 
so  well  employed  as  the  foolish  heathen  em- 
peror, who  amused  himself  in  killing  trouble- 
some flies  and  wearisome  time  together.  The 
delight  of  rational  creatures,  much  more  of 
Christians  on  the  brink  of  the  grave,  is  to  re- 
deem, improve,  and  soUdly  enjoy  time;  but 
yours,  alas !  consists  in  the  bare,  irreparable  loss 
of  that  invaluable  treasure!  O,  what  account 
will  you  give  of  the  souls  you  neglect,  and  the 
talents  you  bury ! 

And  shall  we  kill  each  day!     If  trifling  kill, 
Sure  vice  must  butcher.     O !  what  heaps  of  slain 
Call  out  for  vengeance  on  us!     Time  destroy'd 
Is  suicide,  where  more  than  blood  is  spilt. — ^YotrNG. 

And  are  public  diversions  better  evidences  of 
our  innocence  and  happiness?  Let  reason  de- 
cide. In  cities,  some  are  lavish  of  the  gold 
which  should  be  laid  by  for  payment  of  their 
debts,  or  the  relief  of  the  poor,  to  buy  an  op- 
portunity of  acting,  under  a  mask,  an  imperti- 
nent or  immodest  part  without  a  blush;  and 
others  are  guilty  of  the  same  injustice  or  prodi- 
gality, that  they  may  be  entitled  to  the  honor 


112  AH  APPEAL  TO  [PAET  IH. 

of  waiting  upon  a  company  of  idle  buffoons,  and 
seeing  them  act  what  would  make  a  modest 
woman  blush,  or  hearing  them  speak  what  per- 
sons of  true  piety,  or  pure  morals,  would  gladly 
pay  them  never  to  utter. 

Are  country  amusements  more  rational  and 
innocent?  What  shall  we  say  of  those  Chris- 
tian, or  rather  heathenisli  festivals,  called  wakes, 
annually  kept  in  honor  of  the  saint  to  whom  the 
parish  church  was  formally  dedicated  ?  Are 
they  not  celebrated  with  the  idleness,  vanity,  and 
debauchery  of  the  floralia — with  the  noise,  riots, 
and  frantic  mirth  of  the  bacchanals — rather  than 
with  the  decent  solemnity,  pious  cheerfulness, 
and  strict  temperance,  which  characterize  the 
rehgion  of  the  holy  Jesus  ? 

The  assizes  are  held,  the  judge  passes  an 
awful  sentence  of  transportation  or  death  upon 
guilty  wretches  who  stand,  pale  and  trembling, 
before  his  tribunal ;  and  twenty  couple  of  gay 
gentlemen  and  ladies,  as  if  they  rejoiced  in  the 
infamy  and  destruction  of  their  fellow-mortals, 
dance  all  niglit,  perhaps  in  the  very  apartment 
where  the  distracted  victims  of  justice  a  few 
hours  before  wrung  their  hands  and  rattled  their 
irons ! 

The  races  are  advertised — all  the  country  is 
in  motion — neither  business,  rain,  nor  storm, 
can  prevent  thousands  from  running  for  miles, 
and  sometimes  through  the  worst  of  roads,  to 
feast  their  eyes  upon  the  danger  of  their  fellow- 
creatures,  and  divert  themselves  with  the  miseiy 
of   the  most  useful   animals.      Daring   mortals 


PART  III.]  MATTBR  01*  FACT.  lit 

hazard  their  necks  upon  swift  coursers,  which 
are  tortured  by  the  severest  lashes  of  the  whip, 
and  incessant  pricks  or  tearing  gashes  of  the 
spur,  that  they  may  exert  their  utmost  force, 
strain  every  nerve,  and  make  continued  efforts 
even  beyond  the  powers  of  nature ;  whence — to 
say  nothing  of  fatal  accidents,  which  yet,  alas ! 
too  frequently  happen — they  sometimes  pant 
away  their  wretched  lives  in  a  bath  of  sweat 
and  blood ;  and  all  this,  that  they  may  aflford  a 
barbarous  pleasure  to  their  idle,  wanton,  and 
barbarous  beholders. 

In  one  place,  the  inhuman  sport  is  afforded 
by  an  unhappy  bird,  fixed  at  a  distance,  that  the 
sons  of  cruelty  may  long  exercise  their  merciless 
skill  in  its  lingering  and  painful  destruction,  or 
by  two  of  them  trained  up  and  high  fed  for  the 
battle.  The  hour  fixed  for  the  obstinate  en- 
gagement is  come ;  and,  as  if  it  was  not  enough 
that  they  should  pick  other's  eyes  out  with 
the  strong  bills  that  nature  has  given  them, 
human  malice,  or  rather  diabolical  cruelty,  comes 
to  the  assistance  of  their  native  fierceness.  Sil- 
ver spurs,  or  steel  talons,  sharper  than  those  of 
the  eagle,  are  barbarously  fastened  to  their  feet ; 
thus  armed,  they  are  excited  to  leap  at  each 
other,  and,  in  a  hundred  repeated  onsets,  to  tear 
their  feathers  and  flesh  as  if  they  were  contending 
vultures ;  and  if,  at  last,  one,  blinded,  covered 
with  blood  and  wounds,  and  unable  to  stand  any 
longer  the  metallic  claws  of  his  antagonist,  en- 
ters into  the  agonies  of  death,  the  numerous  ring 
of  stamping,  clapping,  shouting,  eagerly-betting, 
8 


114  .AH  APPEAL  TO  [p ART  III. 

or  horribly-cursing  spectators,  is  as  highly  de- 
lighted as  if  the  tortured,  dying  creature  was  the 
common  enemy  of  mankind. 

In  another  place,  a  multitude  of  spectators  is 
delightfully  entertained  by  two  brawny  men, 
who  unmercifully  knock  one  another  down,  as  if 
they  were  oxen  appointed  for  the  slaughter,  and 
continue  the  savage  play  till  one,  with  his  flesh 
bruised  and  his  bones  shattered,  bleeding  and 
gasping  as  in  the  pangs  of  death,  yields  to  his 
antagonist,  and  thus  puts  an  end  to  the  shocking 
sport. 

But  it  is,  perhaps,  a  different  spectacle  that 
recommends  itself  to  the  bloody  taste  of  our  bap- 
tized heathens.  Fierce  dogs  are  excited  by 
fiercer  men,  with  fury  to  fasten  upon  the  nose, 
or  tear  out  the  eyes,  of  a  poor  confined  animal, 
which  pierces  the  sky  with  his  painful  and  la- 
mentable bellowings,  enough  to  force  compas- 
sion from  the  heart  of  barbarians  not  totally  lost 
to  all  sense  of  humanity ;  while,  in  the  mean  time, 
the  surrounding  savage  mob  rend  the  very 
heavens  with  the  most  horrid  imprecations  and 
repeated  shouts  of  applauding  joy;  sporting 
themselves  with  that  very  misery  which  human 
nature — were  it  not  deplorably  corrupted — 
would  teach  them  to  alleviate.* 

*  "  I  ever  thought,"  says  Judge  Hale,  in  his  Contem- 
plations, "that  there  is  a  certain  degree  of  justice  due  from 
man  to  the  creatures,  as  from  man  to  man ;  and  that  an 
excessive  use  of  the  creature's  labor  is  au  injustice  for 
which  he  must  account.  I  have,  therefore,  always  esteemed 
it  as  a  part  of  my  duty,  and  it  has  always  been  my  prac- 
tice, to  be  merciful  to  ray  beasts;  and  upon  the  same  ac- 


PART  III.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  115 

These  are  thy  favorite  amusements,  0  Eng- 
land, thou  center  of  the  civilized  world,  where 
reformed  Christianity,  deep-thinking  wisdom,  and 
polite  learning,  with  all  its  refinements,  have 
fixed  their  abode !  But,  in  the  name  of  common 
sense,  how  can  we  clear  them  from  the  imputa- 
tion of  absurdity,  folly,  and  madness  ?  And  by 
what  means  can  they  be  reconciled,  I  will  not 
say  to  the  religion  of  the  meek  Jesus,  but  to  the 
philosophy  of  a  Plato,  or  calm  reason  of  any 
thinking  man?  How  perverted  must  be  the 
taste,  how  irrational  and  cruel  the  diversions  of 
barbarians  in  other  parts  of  the  globe!  And 
how  applicable  to  all  the  wise  man's  observa- 
tion: "Foolishness  is  bound  up  in  the  heart 
of  a  child,  and  madness  in  the  breasts  of  the 
sons  of  men." 

TWENTY-FOURTH  ARGUMENT. 

The  total  corruption  of  our  nature  appears 
not  only  in  the  inclination  of  mankind  to  pursue 
irrational  and  cruel   amusements,  but  in  their 

count  I  have  declined  any  cruelty  to  any  of  thy  creatures, 
and,  as  much  as  I  might,  prevented  it  in  others  as  a  tyr- 
anny. I  have  abhorred  those  sports  that  consist  in  the  tor- 
turing of  thy  creatures;  and  if  any  noxious  creature  must 
be  destroyed,  or  creatures  for  food  must  be  taken,  it  has 
been  my  practice  to  do  it  in  the  manner  that  may  be  with 
the  least  torture  or  cruelty  to  the  creature;  ever  remem- 
bering, that  though  God  has  given  us  a  dominion  over  his 
creatures,  yet  it  is  under  a  law  of  justice,  prudence,  and 
moderation;  otherwise  we  should  become  tyrants  and  not 
lords  over  God's  creatures;  and  therefore  those  things  of 
this  nature,  which  others  have  practiced  as  recreations,  I 
have  avoided  as  sins." 


116  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PABT  Ul. 

general  propensity  to  commit  the  most  unprofita- 
ble, ridiculous,  inhuman,  impious,  and  diabohcal 
«n8. 

1.  The  most  unprofitable;  for  instance,  that 
of  sporting  in  profane  oaths  and  curses,  with  the 
tremendous  name  of  the  supreme  Being,  Be- 
cause of  swearing  the  land  moumeth,  said  a 
prophet,  thousands  of  years  ago;  and  what 
land,  even  in  Christendom,  yea,  what  parish  in 
this  reformed  island,  mourns  not,  or  ought  not 
to  mourn,  for  the  same  provoking  crime?  a 
crime  which  is  the  hellish  offspring  of  practical 
Atheism  and  heathenish  insolence — a  crime  that 
brings  neither  profit,  honor,  nor  pleasure  to  the 
profane  wretch  who  commits  it — a  crime  for 
which  he  may  be  put  to  open  shame,  forced  to 
appear  before  a  magistrate,  and  sent  for  ten  days 
to  the  house  of  correction,  unless  he  pays  an 
ignominious  fine ;  and  what  is  more  awful  still, 
a  crime  which,  if  persisted  in,  will  one  day  cause 
him  to  gnaw  his  impious  tongue  in  the  severest 
torments.  Surely  man,  who  drinks  this  insipid, 
and  yet  destructive  iniquity  like  water,  must  have 
his  moral  taste  strangely  vitiated,  not  to  say  dia- 
bolically perverted. 

2.  The  most  ridiculous  sins.  In  what  coun- 
try, town,  or  village,  do  not  women  betray  their 
silly  vanity?  Is  it  not  the  same  foolish  dispo- 
sition of  heart,  which  makes  them  bore  their 
ears  in  Europe,  and  slit  their  noses  in  Amer- 
ica, that  they  may  unnattirally  graft  in  their 
flesh  pieces  of  glass,  shining  pebbles,  glittering 
gold,  or  trinkets  of  meaner  metals  ?     And  when 


PART  in,]  MATTER  OP  FACT.  11 Y 

female  Hottentots  fancy  they  add  to  the  import- 
ance of  their  filthy  person  by  some  yards  of  the 
bloody  intestines  of  a  beast  twisted  round  their 
arms  or  necks,  do  they  not  evidence  the  very 
spirit  of  the  ladies  in  our  hemisphere,  who  too 
often  measure  their  dignity  by  the  yards  of 
colored  silk  bands  with  which  they  crown  them- 
selves, and  turn  the  grave  matron  into  a  pitiful 
May  queen ! 

3.  The  most  inhuman  sins.  "A  hundred 
thousand  mad  animals,  whose  heads  are  covered 
with  hats,"  says  Voltaire,  "advance  to  kill,  or 
to  be  killed,  by  the  like  number  of  their  fellow- 
mortals,  covered  with  turbans.  By  this  strange 
procedure,  they  want,  at  best,  to  decide  whether 
a  tract  of  land,  to  which  none  of  them  all  lays 
any  claim,  shall  belong  to  a  certain  man  whom 
they  call  Sultan,  or  to  another  whom  they  name 
Cesar,  neither  of  whom  ever  saw,  or  will  see, 
the  spot  so  furiously  contended  for;  and  very 
few  of  those  creatures  who  thus  mutually  butcher 
one  another,  ever  beheld  the  animal  for  whom 
they  cut  each  other's  throats.  From  time  im- 
memorial this  has  been  the  way  of  mankind 
almost  over  all  the  earth.  What  an  excess  of 
madness  is  this !  And  how  deservedly  might  a 
superior  Being  crush  to  atoms  this  earthly  ball, 
the  bloody  nest  of  such  ridiculous  murderers !" 

The  same  author  makes  elsewhere  the  fol- 
lowing reflections  on  the  same  melancholy  sub- 
ject. "Famine,  pestilence,  and  war,  are  the 
three  most  famous  ingredients  of  this  lower 
world.     The  two  first  come  from  God ;  but  the 


11$  AN  APPEAL  TO  [pART  III. 

last,  in  which  all  three  concur,  comes  from  the 
imagination  of  princes  or  ministers.  A  king 
fancies  that  he  has  a  right  to  a  distant  province. 
He  raises  a  multitude  of  men,  who  have  nothing 
to  do,  and  nothing  to  lose,  gives  them  a  red  coat 
and  a  laced  hat,  and  makes  them  wheel  to  the 
right,  and  wheel  to  the  left,  and  march  to  glory. 
Five  or  six  of  these  belligerent  powers  some- 
times engage  together,  three  against  three,  or  two 
against  four;  but,  whatever  part  they  take,  they 
all  agree  in  one  point — which  is,  to  do  their  neigh- 
bor all  possible  mischief.  The  most  astonishing 
thing  belonging  to  their  infernal  undertaking  is, 
that  every  ringleader  of  those  murderers  gets 
his  colors  consecrated  and  solemnly  blessed  in 
the  name  of  God,  before  he  marches  up  to  the 
destruction  of  his  fellow-creatures.  If  a  chief 
warrior  has  had  the  good  fortune  of  getting  only 
two  or  three  thousand  men  slaughtered,  he  does 
not  think  it  worth  his  while  to  thank  God  for  it ; 
but  if  ten  thousand  have  been  destroyed  by  fire 
and  sword,  and  if,  to  complete  his  good  fortune, 
some  capital  city  has  been  totally  overthrown,  a 
day  of  public  thanksgiving  is  appointed  on  the 
joj'ful  occasion.  Is  not  that  a  fine  art  which 
carries  such  desolation  through  the  earth,  and, 
one  year  with  another,  destroys  forty  thousand 
men  out  of  a  hundred  thousand !" 

4.  The  most  impious  sins ;  for  instance,  that 
of  idolatry.  "  Before  the  coming  of  Christ," 
says  a  late  divine,  "  all  the  polite  and  barbarous 
nations  among  the  heathens  plunged  into  it 
with  equal  blindness.     And  the  Jews  were  so 


PART  in.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  11?^ 

strongly  wedded  to  it,  that  God's  miraculous  in- 
terposition, both  by  dreadful  judgments  and  as- 
tonishing mercies,  could  not  for  eight  hundred 
years  restrain  them  from  committing  it  in  the 
grossest  manner." 

Nor  need  we  look  at  either  heathens  or  Jews, 
to  see  the  proneness  of  mankind  to  that  detesta- 
ble crime :  Christians  alone  can  prove  the  charge. 
To  this  day,  the  greatest  part  of  them  pray  to 
dead  men  and  dead  women,  bow  to  images  of 
stone  and  crosses  of  wood,  and  make,  adore, 
and  swallow  down  the  wafer  god ;  and  those 
who  pity  them  for  this  ridiculous  idolatry,  till 
converting  grace  interposes,  daily  set  up  their 
idols  in  their  hearts,  and,  without  going  to  the 
plain  of  Dura,  sacrifice  all  to  the  king's  golden 
image. 

And,  5.  The  most  diabolical  sin:  persecution, 
that  favorite  offspring  of  Satan,  transformed 
into  an  angel  of  light.  Persecution,  that  bloody, 
hypocritical  monster,  which  carries  a  Bible,  a 
liturgy,  and  a  bundle  of  canons  in  one  hand, 
with  fire,  fagots,  and  all  the  weapons  invented 
by  cruelty  in  the  other;  and  with  sanctified 
looks,  distresses,  racks,  or  murders  men,  either 
because  they  love  God  or  because  they  can  not 
all  think  alike. 

Time  would  fail  to  tell  of  those  who,  on  re- 
ligious accounts,  have  been  stoned  and  sawn 
asunder  by  the  Jews,  cast  to  the  lions  and  burnt 
by  the  heathens,  strangled  and  impaled  by  the 
Mohammedans,  and  butchered  all  manner  of 
ways  by  the  Christians. 


AN  APPEAL  TO  [pART  m. 

Yes,  we  must  confess  it,  Christian  Rome  hath 
glutted  herself  with  the  blood  of  martyrs,  which 
heathenish  Rome  had  but  comparatively  tasted ; 
and  when  Protestants  fled  from  her  bloody  pale, 
they  brought  along  with  them  too  much  of  her 
bloody  spirit :  prove  the  sad  assertion,  poor  Ser- 
vetus.  When  Romish  inquisition  had  forced 
thee  to  fly  to  Geneva,  what  reception  didst  thou 
meet  with  in  that  reformed  city?  Alas!  the 
Papists  had  burned  thee  in  effigy,  the  Protestants 
burned  thee  in  reality,  and  Moloch  triumphed  to 
see  the  two  opposite  parties  agree  in  oflfering 
him  the  human  sacrifice. 

So  universally  restless  is  the  spirit  of  persecu- 
tion, which  inspires  the  unrenewed  part  of  man- 
kind, that  when  people  of  the  same  religion  have 
no  outward  opposer  to  tear,  they  bark  at,  bite, 
and  devour  one  another.  Is  it  not  the  same 
bitter  zeal  that  made  the  Pharisees  and  Saddu- 
cees  among  the  Jews,  and  now  makes  the  sects 
of  Ali  and  Omar  among  the  Mohammedans, 
those  of  the  Jansenists  and  Molinists  among  the 
Papists,  and  those  of  the  Calvinists  and  Armin- 
ians  among  the  Protestants,  oppose  each  other 
with  such  acrimony  and  virulence  ? 

But  let  us  look  around  us  at  home.  When 
persecuting  Popery  had  almost  expired  in  the 
fires  in  which  it  burned  our  first  churchmen,  how 
soon  did  those  who  survived  them  commence 
persecutors  of  the  Presbyterians  ?  When  these, 
forced  to  fly  to  New  England  for  rest,  got  there 
the  staff  of  power  in  their  hand,  did  they  not,  in 
their  turn,  fall  upon,  and  even  hang  the  Quakers  ? 


PART  in.]  MATTER  OF  TACT.  fSl' 

And  now  that  an  act  of  toleration  binds  the  mon- 
ster, and  the  lash  of  pens,  consecrated  to  the 
defense  of  our  civil  and  religious  liberties,  makes 
him  either  afraid  or  ashamed  of  roaring  aloud 
for  his  prey,  does  he  not  show,  by  his  supercil- 
ious looks,  malicious  sneers,  and  settled  con- 
tempt of  vital  piety,  what  he  would  do  should 
an  opportunity  offer?  And  does  he  not  still, 
under  artful  pretenses,  go  to  the  utmost  length 
of  his  chain,  to  wound  the  reputation  of  those 
whom  he  can  not  devour,  and  inflict  at  least* 
academic  death  upon  those  whose  person  is  hap- 
pily secured  from  his  rage? 

0,  ye  unconverted  among  mankind,  if  all  these 
abominations  every-where  break  out  upon  you, 
what  cages  of  unclean  birds,  what  nests  swarm- 
ing with  cruel  vipers,  are  your  deceitful  and  des- 
perately-wicked hearts ! 

TWENTY-FIFTH  ARGUMENT. 

How  dreadfully  fallen  is  man,  if  he  has  not 
only  a  propensity  to  commit  the  above-mentioned 
sins,  but  to  transgress  the  Divine  commands 
with  a  variety  of  shocking  aggravations !  Yes, 
mankind  are  prone  to  sin : 

1.  Immediately,  by  a  kind  of  evil  instinct ;  as 
children  who  peevishly  strike  the  very  breast 
they  suck,  and  betray  the  rage  of  their  httle 
hearts  by  sobbing  and  swelling  sometimes  till, 
by  forcing  their  bowels  out  of  their  place,  they 
bring  a  rupture  upon  themselves  ;  and  frequently 
till  they  are  black  in  the  face,  and  almost  suflfo- 

*  See  Pietas  Oxoniensis. 


12j&  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PABT  HI 

cated.  II.  Deliberately;  as  those  who,  having 
life  and  death  clearly  set  before  them,  willfully, 
obstinately,  choose  the  way  that  leads  to  certain 
destruction.  Ill,  Repeatedly;  witness  liars, 
who,  because  their  crime  costs  them  but  a 
breath,   frequently  commit  it  at  every  breath. 

IV.  Continually ;  as  rakes,  who  would  make 
their  whole  life  one  uninterrupted  scene  of  de- 
bauchery, if  their  exhausted  strength,  or  purse, 
did  not  force  them  to  intermit  their  lewd  prac- 
tices, though  not  without  a  promise  to  renew 
them  again  at  the  first  convenient  opportunity. 

V.  Treacherously ;  as  those  Christians  who  for- 
get Divine  mercies,  and  their  own  repeated 
resolutions,  break  through  the  solemn  vows  and 
promises  made  in  their  sacraments,  and,  sinning 
with  a  high  hand  against  their  profession, 
perfidiously  fly  in  the  face  of  their  conscience, 
the  Church,  and  their  Savior.  VI.  Daringly; 
as  those  who  steal  under  the  gallows,  openly 
insult  their  parents  or  their  king,  laugh  at  all 
laws,  human  and  divine,  and  put  at  defiance  all 
that  are  invested  with  power  to  see  them  exe- 
cuted. VII.  Triumphantly;  as  the  vast  num- 
ber of  those  who  glory  in  their  shame,  sound 
aloud  the  trumpet  of  their  own  wickedness,  and 
boast  of  their  horrid,  repeated  debaucheries,  as 
admirable  and  praiseworthy  deeds.  VIII.  Pro- 
gressively ;  till  they  have  filled  up  the  measure 
of  their  iniquities,  as  individuals ;  witness  Judas, 
who,  from  covetousness,  proceeded  to  hypocrisy, 
theft,  treason,  despair,  and  self-murder;  or,  as 
a  nation,  witness  the  Jews,  who,  after  despising 


PART  III.J  MATTER  OF  FACT.  12Jf 

and  killing  their  prophets,  rejected  the  Son  of 
God,  affirmed  he  was  mad,  stigmatized  him 
with  the  name  of  deceiver,  said  he  was  Beel- 
zebub himself,  offered  him  all  manner  of  indig- 
nities, bought  his  blood,  prayed  it  might  be  on 
them  and  their  children,  rested  not  till  they  had 
put  the  Prince  of  Life  to  the  most  ignominious 
death,  and,  horrible  to  say !  made  sport  with  the 
groans  which  rent  the  rocks  around  them,  and 
threw  the  earth  into  convulsions  under  their  feet. 
IX.  Unnaturally;  1.  By  astonishing  barbari- 
ties, as  the  women  who  murder  their  own  chil- 
dren, the  Greeks  and  Romans,  who  exposed 
them  to  be  the  living  prey  of  wild  beasts,  the 
savages,  Avho  knock  their  aged  parents  on  the 
head,  the  cannibals,  who  roast  and  eat  their 
prisoners  of  war,  and  some  revengeful  people, 
who,  to  taste  all  the  sweetness  of  their  devilish 
passion,  have  murdered  their  enemy,  and  eaten 
up  his  liver  and  heart.  2.  By  the  most  diaboli- 
cal superstitions;  as  the  Israelites,  who,  when 
they  had  learned  the  works  of  the  heathens,  sacri- 
ficed their  sons  and  their  daughters  to  devils, 
and,  by  the  horrible  practices  of  witchcraft,  en- 
deavored to  raise,  and  deal  with  infernal  spirits ; 
and  3.  By  the  most  preposterous  gratification 
of  sense;   witness  the  incests*  and  rapes  com- 

*  The  reason  which  engaged  the  publisher  of  these 
sheets  to  preach  to  some  of  the  colliers  in  his  neighbor- 
hood, was  the  horrid  length  they  went  in  immorality.  One 
of  them,  whose  father  was  hanged,  upon  returning  him- 
self from  transportation,  in  cold  blood,  attempted  to  ravish 
his  own  daugiiter  in  the  presence  of  his  own  wife,  and 
was  just  prevented  from  completing  his  crime,  by  the  ut- 


124  AW  APPRAL  TO  [pART  in. 

mitted  in  this  land,  the  infamous  fires  which 
drew  fire  and  brimstone  down  from  heaven  upon 
accursed  cities,  and  the  horrid  hists  of  the  Ca- 
naanites — though,  alas !  not  confined  to  Canaan — 
which  gave  birth  to  the  laws  recorded,  Lev.  xviii, 
7,  23,  and  xx,  16* — laws  that  are  at  once  the 
disgrace  of  mankind,  and  the  proof  of  ray  as- 
sertion. X.  What  is  most  astonishing  of  all,  by 
apostasy;  as  those  who,  having  begun  in  the 
spirit,  and  tasted  the  bitterness  of  repentance, 
the  good  word  of  God,  and  the  powers  of  the 
world  to  come,  make  shipwreck  of  the  faith, 
deny  the  Lord  that  bought  them,  account  the 
blood  of  the  covenant,  wherewith  they  were 
sanctified,  an  unholy  thing,  and  so  scandalously 
end  in  the  flesh  that  they  are  justly  compared  to 
trees  withered,  plucked  up  by  the  roots,  twice 
dead,  and  to  raging  waves  of  the  sea,  foaming 
out  their  own  shame,  to  whom  is  reserved  the 
blackness  of  darkness  forever. 

Good  God !  what  line  can  fathom  an  abyss  of 
corruption,  the  overflowings  of  which  are  more 
or  less  attended  with  these  multiplied  and  shock- 
ing aggravations  ? 

TWENTY-SIXTH  ARGUMENT. 

If  the  force  of  a  torrent  may  be  known  by  the 

most  exertion  of  the  united  strength  of  the  mother  and  the 
child.  When  brutish  ignorance  and  heathenish  wickedness 
break  out  into  such  unnatural  enormities,  who  would  not 
break  through  the  hedge  of  canonical  regularity  ! 

*  In  the  last  century,  an  Irish  bishop  was  clearly  con- 
victed of  the  crime  forbidden  in  those  laws,  and  suffered 
death  for  it. 


PART  m.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  189 

hight  and  number  of  the  banks  which  it  over- 
flows, the  strength  of  this  corruption  will  be 
rightly  estimated  from  the  high  and  numerous 
dikes  raised  to  stem  it,  which  it  nevertheless 
continually  breaks  through. 

Ignorance  and  debauchery,  injustice  and  im- 
piety, in  all  their  shapes,  still  overspread  the 
whole  earth,  notwithstanding  innumerable  means 
used  in  all  ages  to  suppress  and  prevent  them. 

The  almost  total  extirpation  of  mankind  by 
the  deluge,  the  fiery  showers  that  consumed 
Sodom,  the  ten  Egyptian  plagues,  the  entire  ex- 
cision of  whole  nations  who  were  once  famous 
for  their  wickedness,  the  captivities  of  the  Jews, 
the  destruction  of  thousands  of  cities  and  king- 
doms, and  millions  of  more  private  judgments, 
never  fully  stopped  immorality  in  any  one  country. 

The  striking  miracles  wrought  by  prophets, 
the  alarming  sermons  preached  by  divines,  the 
infinite  number  of  good  books  published  in  al- 
most all  languages,  and  the  founding  of  myriads 
of  churches,  religious  houses,  schools,  colleges, 
and  universities,  have  not  yet  caused  impiety  to 
bide  its  brazen  face  any  where.  The  making 
of  all  sorts  of  excellent  laws,  the  appointing  of 
magistrates  and  judges  to  put  them  in  force,  the 
forming  of  associations,  for  the  reformation  of 
manners,  the  filling  of  thousands  of  prisons,  and 
erecting  of  millions  of  racks  and  gallows,  have 
not  yet  suppressed  one  vice. 

And  what  is  most  amazing  of  all,  the  life, 
miracles,  sufferings,  death,  and  heavenly  doc- 
trine of  the  Son  of  God;  the  labors,  writings. 


126  ■  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  HI. 

and  martjo-dom  of  his  disciples;  the  example 
and  entreaties  of  millions  that  have  lived  and 
Hied  in  the  faith ;  the  inexpressible  horrors  and 
frightful  warnings  of  thousands  of  wicked  men, 
who  have  testified  in  their  last  moments,  that 
they  had  worked  out  their  damnation,  and  were 
just  going  to  their  own  place ;  the  blood  of 
myriads  of  martyrs,  the  strivings  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  the  dreadful  curses  of  the  law,  and  the 
glorious  promises  of  the  Gospel — all  these 
means  together  have  not  extirpated  immorality 
and  profaneness  out  of  one  single  town  or  vil- 
lage in  all  the  world ;  no,  nor  out  of  one  single 
family  for  any  length  of  time.  And  this  will 
probably  continue  to  be  the  desperate  case  of 
mankind,  till  the  Lord  lays  to  his  powerful  hand ; 
seconds  these  means  by  the  continued  strokes 
of  the  sword  of  his  Spirit;  pleads  by  fire  and 
sword  with  all  flesh,  and,  according  to  his 
promise,  causes  righteousness  to  cover  the  earth, 
as  the  waters  cover  the  sea. 

Is  not  this  demonstration  founded  on  matter 
of  fact,  that  human  corruption  is  not  only  deep 
as  the  ocean,  but  impetuous  as  an  overflowing 
river,  which  breaks  down  all  its  banks,  and 
leaves  marks  of  devastation  in  every  place  ?  This 
will  still  appear  in  a  clearer  light,  if  we  consider 
the  strong  opposition  which  oiu*  natural  deprav- 
ity makes  to  divine  grace  in  the  unconverted. 

TWENTY-SEVENTH    ARGUMENT. 

When  the  Lord,  by  the  rod  of  afiiiction,  the 
sword  of  the  Spirit,  and  the  power  of  his  grace. 


PART  in.]       MATTER  OF  FACT.  127 

attacks  the  hard  heart  of  a  sinner,  how  obsti- 
nately does  he  resist  the  sharp,  though  gracious 
operation !  To  make  an  honorable  and  vigorous 
defense,  he  puts  on  the  shining  robes  of  his 
formality ;  he  stands  firm  in  the  boasted  armor 
of  his  moral  powers ;  he  daubs  with  untempered 
mortar  the  ruinous  wall  of  his  conduct;  with 
self-righteous  resolutions,  and  pharisaic  profes- 
sions of  virtue,  he  builds,  as  he  thinks,  an  im- 
pregnable tower ;  musters  and  draws  up  in  battle 
array  his  poor  works,  artfully  putting  in  the  front 
those  that  make  the  finest  appearance,  and  care- 
fully concealing  the  vices  which  he  can  neither 
disguise  nor  dress  up  in  the  regimentals  of 
virtue. 

In  the  mean  time  he  prepares  the  carnal  weap- 
ons of  his  warfare,  and  raises  the  battery  of  a 
multitude  of  objections  to  silence  the  truth  that 
begins  to  gall  him.  He  affirms  "the  preachers 
of  it  are  deceivers  and  madmen,"  till  he  sees 
the  Jews  and  heathens  fixed  even  upon  Christ 
and  St.  Paul  the  very  same  opprobrious  names ; 
he  calls  it  a  "  new  doctrine,"  till  he  is  obliged  to 
acknowledge  that  it  is  as  old  as  the  reformers, 
the  apostles,  and  the  prophets;  he  says  "it  is 
fancy,  delusion,  enthusiasm,"  till  the  blessed  ef- 
fects of  it  on  true  believers  constrain  him  to 
drop  the  trite  and  slanderous  assertion ;  he  de- 
clares that  "  it  drives  people  out  of  their  senses, 
or  makes  them  melancholy,"  till  he  is  compelled 
to  confess  that  the  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  be- 
gmning  of  wisdom,  and  that  none  are  so  happy 
and  joyful  as  those  who  truly  love  and  zealously 


199  AK  APPEAL  TO  [PABT  m. 

serve  God;  he  iirges  that  "it  destroys  good 
works,"  till  a  sight  of  the  readiness  of  believers, 
and  of  his  own  backwardness  to  perform  them, 
makes  him  ashamed  of  the  groundless  accusa- 
tion ;  he  will  tell  you  twenty  times  over,  "  there 
is  no  need  of.  so  much  ado,"  till  he  discovers 
the  folly  of  being  careless  on  the  brink  of  eter- 
nal ruin,  and  observes  that  the  nearness  of  tem- 
poral danger  puts  him  upon  the  utmost  exertion 
of  all  his  powers.  Perhaps,  to  get  himself  a 
name  among  his  profane  companions,  he  lam- 
poons the  Scriptures,  or  casts  out  firebrands  and 
arrows  against  the  despised  disciples  of  Jesus : 
"They  are  all  poor,  illiterate,"  says  he,  "fools 
or  knaves,  cheats  and  hypocrites,"  etc.,  till 
the  word  of  God  stops  his  mouth,  and  he  sees 
himself  the  greatest  hypocrite  with  whom  he  is 
acquainted. 

When  by  such  heavy  charges  he  has  long  kept 
off  the  truth  from  his  heart,  and  the  servants  of 
God  from  his  company,  this  kind  of  ammunition 
begins  to  fail;  and  he  barricades  himself  with 
the  fear  of  being  undone  in  his  circumstances, 
till  experience  convinces  him  that  no  good  thing 
shall  God  withhold  from  them  that  live  a  godly 
life,  and  that  all  things  shall  be  added  to  them 
who  seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God.  He  then 
hides  himself  in  the  crowd  of  the  ungodly,  and 
says,  "if  he  perishes,  many  will  share  the  same 
fate,"  till  he  sees  the  glaring  absurdity  of  going 
to  hell  for  the  sake  of  company.  He  shelters, 
at  last,  under  the  protection  of  the  rich,  the  great, 
the  learned  despisers  of  Christ  and  the  cross, 


PART  ni.]       MATTER  OF  FACT.  129 

till  the  minds  of  their  wickedness  springing  on 
all  sides  around  him,  makes  him  fly  to  the  sanc- 
tuary of  the  Lord;  and  there  he  sees  the  ways 
and  understands  the  end  of  these  men. 

When  all  his  batteries  are  silenced,  and  a 
breach  is  made  in  his  conscience,  he  looks  out 
for  some  secret  way  to  leave  Sodom,  without 
being  taken  notice  of,  and  derided  by  those  who 
fight  under  Satan's  banner ;  and  the  fear  of  being 
taken  for  one  of  them  that  fly  from  the  wrath  to 
come,  and  openly  take  the  part  of  a  holy  God 
against  a  sinful  world,  pierces  him  through  with 
many  sorrows. 

Are  the  outworks  taken,  has  he  been  forced 
to  part  with  his  gross  immoralities,  he  has  gen- 
erally recourse  to  a  variety  of  stratagems.  Some- 
times he  publicly  dismisses  Satan's  garrison — 
fleshly  lusts  which  war  against  the  godly,  and 
keep  under  the  ungodly  soul ;  but  it  is  only  to 
let  them  in  again  secretly,  either  one  by  one  or 
with  forces  seven  times  greater,  so  that  his  last 
state  is  worse  than  the  first.  At  other  times  he 
hoists  up  the  white  flag  of  truth,  apparently 
yields  to  conviction,  favors  the  ministers  of  the 
Gospel,  admits  the  language  of  Canaan,  and 
warmly  contends  for  evangelical  doctrines;  but, 
alas !  the  place  has  not  surrendered,  his  heart  is 
not  given  up  to  God ;  spiritual  wickedness,  under 
fair  shows  of  zeal,  still  keeps  possession  for  the 
god  of  this  world;  and  the  shrewd  hypocrite 
artfully  imitates  the  behavior  of  a  true  Israelite, 
just  as  Satan  transforms  himself  to  an  angel  of 
light. 

9 


180  AW  APPEAL  TO  [PAET  HI. 

Is  he  at  last  deeply  convinced,  that  the  only 
means  of  escaping  destruction  and  capitulating 
to  advantage  is,  to  deliver  up  the  traitor  sin ! 
Yet  what  a  long  parley  does  he  hold  about  it ! 
"What  a  multitude  of  plausible  reasons  does  he 
advance  to  put  it  off  from  day  to  day !  "  He  is 
yet  young — the  Lord  is  merciful — all  have  their 
foibles — we  are  here  in  an  imperfect  state — it  is 
a  little  sin — it  may  be  consistent  with  loyalty  to 
God — it  hurts  nobody  but  himself — many  pious 
men  were  once  guilty  of  it — by  and  by  ho 
will  repent  as  they  did,"  etc.  When  louder 
summons  and  increasing  fears  compel  him  to 
renounce  the  lusts  of  the  flesh,  how  strongly 
does  he  plead  for  those  of  the  mind !  And  after 
he  has  given  up  his  bosom  sin  with  his  lips,  how 
treacherously  does  he  hide  it  in  the  inmost  re- 
cesses of  his  heart! 

Never  did  a  besieged  town  dispute  the  ground 
with  such  obstinacy,  and  hold  out  by  such  a  va- 
riety of  stratagems,  as  corrupt  man  stands  it  out 
against  the  repeated  attacks  of  truth  and  grace. 
If  he  yields  at  all,  it  is  seldom  before  he  is 
brought  to  the  greatest  extremity.  He  feeds  on 
the  dust  of  the  earth :  he  tries  to  fill  his  soul  with 
the  husks  of  vanity,  and  fares  hard  on  sounds, 
names,  forms,  opinions,  withered  experience, 
dry  notions  of  faith,  and  empty  professions  of 
hope,  and  fawning  shows  of  love,  till  the  mighty 
famine  arises,  and  the  intolerable  want  of  sub- 
stantial bread  forces  him  to  surrender  at  discre- 
tion, and  without  reserve. 

Some  stand  it  out  thus  against  the  God  of 


PART  ni.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  131 

their  salvation  ten  or  twenty  years;  and  others 
never  yield  till  the  terrors  of  death  storm  their 
aflFrighted  souls,  their  last  sickness  batters  down 
their  tortured  bodies,  and  the  poison  of  the  ar- 
rows of  the  Almighty  drinks  up  their  wasted 
spirits.  What  a  strong  proof  is  this  of  the  in- 
veteracy and  the  obstinacy  of  our  corruption! 

TWENTY-EIOHTH    ARGUMENT. 

But  a  still  stronger  may  be  drawn  from  the 
amazing  struggles  of  God's  children  with  their 
depravity,  even  after  they  have,  through  grace, 
powerfully  subdued,  and  gloriously  triumphed 
over  it.  Their  Redeemer  himself  is  the  Captain 
of  their  salvation ;  they  are  embarked  with  him 
and  bound  for  heaven ;  they  look  at  the  compass 
of  God's  word;  they  hold  the  rudder  of  sin- 
cerity ;  they  crowd  all  the  sails  of  their  good 
resolutions^  and  pious  affections,  to  catch  the 
gales  of  Divine  assistance;  they  exhort  one  an- 
other daily,  to  ply  the  oars  of  faith  and  prayer 
with  watchful  industry ;  tears  of  deep  repentance 
and  fervent  desire  often  bedew  their  faces  in  the 
pious  toil ;  they  would  rather  die  than  draw  back 
to  perdition ;  but,  alas !  the  stream  of  corrup- 
tion is  so  impetuous,  that  it  often  prevents  their 
making  any  sensible  progress  in  their  spiritual 
voyage ;  and  if  in  an  unguarded  hour  they  drop 
the  oar,  and  faint  in  the  work  of  faith,  the  pa- 
tience of  hope,  or  the  labor  of  love,  they  are 
presently  carried  down  into  the  dead  sea  of  re- 
ligious formality,  or  the  whirlpools  of  scandalous 
wickedness.     Witness  the  lukewarmness  of  the 


132  AN  APPEAL  TO  [pART  III, 

Laodiceans — the  adultery  of  David — the  per- 
jury of  Peter — the  final  apostasy  of  Judas,  and 
the  shameful  flight  of  all  the  disciples. 

TWENTY-NINTH    AEGUMENT. 

When  evidences  of  the  most  opposite  interest 
agree  in  their  deposition  of  a  matter  of  fact,  its 
truth  is  greatly  corroborated.  To  the  last  argu- 
ment, taken  from  some  sad  experiences  of  God's 
people,  I  shall,  therefore,  add  one  drawn  from 
the  religious  rites  of  Paganism,  the  confessions 
of  ancient  heathens,  and  the  testimony  of  modem 
Deists. 

When  the  heathens  made  their  temples  stream 
with  the  blood  of  slaughtered  hecatombs,  did 
they  not  often  explicitly  deprecate  the  wrath 
of  Heaven  and  impending  destruction?  And 
was  it  not  a  sense  of  their  guilt  and  danger,  and 
a  hope  that  the  punishment  they  deserved  might 
be  transferred  to  their  bleeding  victims,  which 
gave  birth  to  their  numerous  expiatory  and  pro- 
pitiatory sacrifices?  If  tliis  must  be  granted,  it 
is  plain  those  sacrifices  were  so  many  proofs 
that  the  considerate  heathens  Avere  not  utter 
strangers  to  their  corruption  and  danger. 

But  let  them  speak  their  own  sentiments. 
Not  to  mention  their  allegorical  fables  of  Pro- 
metheus, who  brought  a  curse  upon  earth  by 
stealing  fire  out  of  heaven,  and  of  Pandora, 
whose  fatal  curiosity  let  all  sorts  of  woes  and 
diseases  loose  upon  mankind,  does  not  Ovid, 
in  his  Metamorphoses,  give  a  striking  account  of 
the  fall  and  its  dreadful  consequences?     Read 


PART  III,]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  133 

his  description  of  the  golden  age,  and  you  see 
Adam  in  Paradise ;  proceed  to  the  iron  age,  and 
yoii  behold  the  horrid  picture  of  our  consum- 
mate wickedness. 

If  the  ancients  had  no  idea  of  that  native  pro- 
pensity to  evil  which  we  call  original  depravity, 
what  did  Plato  mean  by  our  natural  wickedness  ?* 
And  Pythagoras,  by  the  fatal  companion,  the 
noxious  strife  that  lurks  within  us,  and  was  born 
along  with  us?f  Pid  not  Solon  take  for  his 
motto  the  well-known  saying  which,  though  so 
much  neglected  now,  was  formerly  written  in 
golden  capitals  over  the  door  of  Apollo's  temple 
at  Delphos,  Know  thyself  ?J  Are  we  not  in- 
formed by  the  heathen  historians  that  Socrates,  the 
prince  of  the  Greek  sages,  acknowledged  he  was 
naturally  prone  to  the  grossest  vices?  Does 
not  Seneca,  the  best  of  the  Roman  philosophers, 
observe,  We  are  born  in  such  a  condition,  that 
we  are  not  subject  to  fewer  disorders  of  the  mind 
than  of  the  body?§  Yea,  that  all  vices  are  in 
all  men,  though  they  do  not  break  out  in  every 
one  :||  and  that  to  confess  them  is  the  beginning 
of  our  cure?^     And  had  not  Cicero  lamented 


*  Kakia  en  phusei.  Hence  that  excellent  definition  of 
true  religion.  Therapeia  psuches.  The  cure  of  a  diseased 
soul. 

t  Eurethre  gar  sunopados  eris  hlaptousa  leletheu.  Sumph- 
tuos.     Aur.  Carm. 

I  Gnothi  seauton. 

^  Hac  conditione  nati  sumus.  Aninialia  obnoxia  non 
paucioribus  animi  quani  corporis  morbis. 

II  Omnia  in  omnibus  vitia  sunt,  sed  non  omnia  in  singulis 
extant. 

t  Vitia  sua  confiteri  sanitatis  principium  est. 


134  AH  APPEAL  TO  [PART  HI. 

before  Seneca,  that  men  are  brought  into  hfe  by 
nature  as  a  step-mother,  with  a  naked,  frail,  and 
infirm  body,  and  a  soul  prone  to  divers  lusts? 

Even  some  of  the  sprightliest  poets  bear  their 
testimony  to  the  mournful  truth  I  contend  for. 
Propertius  could  say.  Every  body  has  a  vice  to 
which  he  is  inclined  by  nature.*  Horace  de- 
clared, that  no  man  is  born  fi-ee  from  vices,  and 
that  he  is  the  best  man  who  is  oppressed  with 
the  least  ;f  that  mankind  rush  into  wickedness, 
and  always  desire  what  is  forbidden  ;|  that  youth 
hath  the  softness  of  wax  to  receive  vicious  im- 
pressions, and  the  hardness  of  a  rock  to  resist 
virtuous  admonitions  ;§  in  a  word,  that  we  are 
mad  enough  to  attack  heaven  itself,  and  that  our 
repeated  crimes  do  not  suffer  the  God  of  heaven 
to  lay  by  his  wrathful  thunderbolts. || 

And  Juvenal,  as  if  he  had  understood  what 
St.  Paul  says  of  the  carnal  mind,  affirms  that 
nature,  unchangeably  fixed,  tends,  yea,  runs  back 
to  wickedness,  as  bodies  to  their  center. Tf 

Thus  the  very  depositions  of  the  heathens,  in 
their  lucid  intervals,  as  well  as  their  sacrifices, 
prove  the  depravity  and  danger  of   mankind. 

*  Unicuique  dedit  vitium  natura  creato. 

f  Nam  vitiis  nemo  sine  nascitur,  optimus  ille  est, 

Qui  minimis  urgetur. 
I  Gens  humana  ruit  per  vetitura  nefas, 

Nitimur  in  vetitum  semper  cupimusque  negata. 

SCereus  in  vitium  flecti,  monitoribus  asper. 
Caelum  ipsum  petimus  stultitia;  neque 
Per  nostrum  patimur  scelus 
Iracunda  Jovem  ponere  fulmina. 

%  Ad  mores  natura  recurrit 
Damnatos,  fixa  et  mutari  nescia. 


PART  iri.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  135 

And  so  does  likewise  the  testimon}'  of  some  of 
our  modern  Deistical  philosophers. 

The  ini^enious  author  of  a  book  called  Phi- 
losophical Inquiries  concerning  the  Americans, 
informs  us,  it  is  a  custom  among  some  Indians, 
that  as  soon  as  the  wife  is  delivered  of  a  child, 
the  husband  must  take  to  his  bed,  where  he  is 
waited  on  by  the  poor  woman  who  should  have 
been  brought  there;  and  that  to  this  day,  the 
same  ridiculous  custom  prevails  in  some  parts 
of  France.  "From  this  and  other  instances," 
says  our  Inquirer,  "  we  may  collect  that,  how- 
ever men  may  differ  in  other  points,  there  is 
a  most  striking  conformity  among  them  in  ab- 
surdity/." 

The  same  philosopher,  who  is  by  no  means 
tainted  with  what  some  persons  are  pleased  to 
call  enthusiasm,  confirms  the  doctrine  of  our 
natural  depravity  by  the  following  anecdote,  and 
the  ironical  observation  with  which  it  is  closed. 
The  Esquimaux — the  wildest  and  most  sottish 
people  in  all  America — call  themselves  men,  and 
all  other  nations  barbarians.  "  Human  vanity, 
we  see,  thrives  equally  well  in  all  climates;  in 
Labrador,  as  in  Asia.  Beneficent  nature  has 
dealt  out  as  much  of  this  comfortable  quality 
to  a  Greenlander,  as  to  the  most  consummate 
French  petit  maitre." 

The  following  testimony  is  so  much  the  more 
striking,  as  it  comes  from  one  of  the  greatest 
poets,  philosophers,  and  Deists,  of  this  present 
free-thinking  age.  "Who  can  without  horror 
consider  the  whole  earth  as  the  empire  of  de- 


i8#  AK  APPSAL  TO  [PART  III. 

struction !  It  abounds  in  wonders,  it  abounds 
also  in  victims;  it  is  a  vast  field  of  carnage  and 
contagion.  Every  species  is,  without  pity,  pur- 
sued and  torn  to  pieces  through  the  earth,  and  air, 
and  water.  In  man  there  is  more  wretchedness 
than  in  all  other  animals  put  together ;  he  smarts 
continually  under  two  scourges,  which  other  ani- 
mals never  feel — anxiety,  and  a  listlessness  in 
appetence,  which  makes  him  weary  of  himself. 
He  loves  life,  and  yet  he  knows  that  he  must  die. 
If  he  enjoys  some  transient  good,  for  which  he 
is  thankful  to  heaven,  he  suffers  various  evils, 
and  is  at  last  devoured  by  worms.  This  knowl- 
edge is  his  fatal  prerogative :  other  animals 
have  it  not.  He  feels  it  every  moment  rankling 
and  corroding  in  his  breast.  Yet  he  spends  the 
transient  moment  of  his  existence  in  diffusing 
the  misery  that  he  suffers — in  cutting  the  throats 
of  his  fellow-creatures  for  pay — in  cheating  and 
being  cheated — in  robbing  and  being  robbed — 
in  serving  that  he  may  command,  and  in  repent- 
ing of  all  that  he  does.  The  bulk  of  mankind 
are  nothing  more  than  a  crowd  of  wretches, 
equally  criminal  and  unfortunate,  and  the  globe 
contains  rather  carcasses  than  men.  I  tremble, 
upon  a  review  of  this  dreadful  picture,  to  find 
that  it  implies  a  complaint  against  Providence, 
and  I  wish  that  I  had  never  been  bom." —  Vol- 
taire's Gospel  of  the  Day* 

*  Wild  error  is  often  the  guide,  and  glaring  contradic- 
tion the  badge,  both  of  those  who  reject  revelation,  like 
Voltaire,  and  of  those  who  indirectly  set  aside  one-half  of 
it,  like  the  Pharisees  and  Antinomians   around  us.     See  a 


PART  III.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  137 

THIRTIETH  ARGUMENT. 

And  yet,  O  strange  infatuation  !  vain  man  will 
be  wise,  and  wicked  man  pretends  to  be  right- 
eous !  Far  from  repenting  in  the  dust,  he 
pleads  his  innocence,  and  claims  the  rewards 


striking  proof  of  it.  This  very  author,  in  another  book — 
O !  see  what  antichristian  morality  conies  to — represents 
the  horrible  sin  of  Sodom  as  an  excusable  mistake  of  na- 
ture, and  assures  us,  that,  "At  the  worst  of  times,  there  is 
at  most  upon  the  earth,  one  man  in  a  thousand  that  can  be 
called  wicked."  Now  for  the  proof!  "Hardly  do  we 
see  one  of  those  enormous  crimes  that  shock  human  na- 
ture committed  in  ten  years,  at  Rome,  Paris,  or  London, 
those  cities  where  the  thirst  of  gain,  which  is  the  parent 
of  all  crimes,  is  carried  to  the  highest  pitch.  If  men  were 
essentially  wicked,  we  should  find  every  morning  husbands 
murderea  by  their  wives,  etc.,  as  we  do  hens  killed  by 
foxes."  According  to  this  apostle  of  the  Deistical  world, 
it  seems,  that  the  most  intense  thirst  of  gold  is  no  degree 
of  wickedness;  that  a  woman  to  be  very  good,  needs  only 
not  to  cut  her  husband's  throat  while  he  is  asleep;  and 
that  it  even  little  matters  whether  she  omits  the  dire  mur- 
der out  of  regard  to  his  life,  or  her  own.  What  moral 
philosophy  is  here!  Why,  if  the  sin  of  Sodom  is  a  pec- 
cadillo, or  frolicsome  mistake,  and  nothing  is  wickedness 
but  a  treacherous  cutting  of  a  husband's  or  a  parent's 
throat,  I  extend  my  charity  four  times  beyond  thee,  O  Vol- 
taire, and  do  maintain  that  there  is  not  one  wicked  man  in 
five  thousand. 

I  insert  this  note  to  obviate  the  charges  of  severe  critics, 
who  accuse  me  of  dealing  in  "gross  misrepresentations, 
false  quotations,  and  forgeries,"  because  I  quote  some  au- 
thors, when  they  speak  as  the  oracles  of  God;  and  do  not 
swell  mv  book  with  their  inconsistencies,  when  they  con- 
tradict tne  Scriptures,  reason,  and  the  truths  which  they 
themselves  have  advanced  in  some  happy  moments;  and 
because  I  can  not  force  my  reason  to  maintain  with  them 
both  sides  of  a  glaring  contradiction. 

O,  ye  Deistical  moralists,  let  me  meet  with  more  candor, 
justice,  and  mercy  from  you,  than  I  have  done  from  the 


133  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  III. 

of  imaginary  merit!  Incredible  as  the  asser- 
tion is,  a  thousand  witnesses  are  ready  to  con- 
firm it. 

Come  forth,  ye  natural  sons  of  virtue,  who,  with 
scornful  boasts,  attack  the  doctrine  of  man's  de- 
pravity !  To  drown  the  whispers  of  reason  and 
experience,  sound  each  your  own  trumpet — 
thank  God  you  "are  not  as  other  men" — in- 
form us  you  "have  a  good  heart"  and  "a 
clear  conscience;"  assure  us,  you  "do  your 
duty,  your  endeavors,  your  best  endeavors," 
to  please  the  Author  of  your  lives;  vow,  you 
"never  were  guilty  of  any  crime,  never  did 
any  harm;"  and  tell  us,  you  hope  to  mount 
to  heaven,  on  the  strong  pinions  of  your  "  good 
works  and  pious  resolutions." 

When  you  have  thus  acted  the  Pharisee's 
part  before  your  fellow-creatures,  go  to  your 
Creator,  and  assume  the  character  of  the  pub- 
lican. Confess  with  your  lips,  you  are  miserable 
sinners,  who  have  done  what  you  ought  not  to 
have  done,  and  left  undone  what  you  ought  to 
have  done.  Protest,  there  is  no  health  in  you ; 
complain  that  the  remembrance  of  your  sins  is 
grievous  to  you,  and  the  burden  of  them  in- 
tolerable. But  remember,  0  ye  self-righteous 
formalists,  that  by  this  glaring  inconsistency 
you  give  the  strongest  proof  of  your  unright- 
eousness.    You  are,  nevertheless,  modest,  when 

warm  opposers  of  the  second  Gospel  axiom.  It  is  enoug-h 
that  you  discard  Scripture;  do  not,  like  them,  make  it  a 
part  of  your  orthodoxy  to  murder  reason,  and  kick  com- 
mon sense  out  of  doors. 


PART  III.]  MATTER  OP  PACT.  139 

compared  with  your  brethren  of  the  Romish 
Church. 

These,  far  from  thinking  themselves  unprofita- 
ble servants,  fancy  they  are  literally  righteous 
over  much.  Becoming  merit-mongers,  they 
make  a  stock  of  their  works  of  supererogation, 
set  up  shop  with  the  righteousness  they  can 
spare  to  others,  and  expose  to  sale  indulgences 
and  pardons  out  of  their  pretended  treasury. 
Nor  are  there  wanting  sons  of  Simon,  who,  with 
ready  money,  purchase,  as  they  think,  not  liv- 
ings in  the  Church  below,  but,  which  is  far  pref- 
erable, seats  in  the  Church  above,  and  good 
places  at  the  heavenly  court. 

Was  ever  a  robe  of  righteousness' — I  had  al- 
most said  a  fool's  coat-— so  coarsely  woven  by 
the  slaves  of  imposture  and  avarice!  And  so 
dearly  bought  by  the  sons  of  superstition  and 
credulity ! 

O,  ye  spiritual  Ethiopians,  who  paint  your- 
selves all  over  with  the  corroding  white  of  hy- 
pocrisy, and,  after  all,  are  artful  enough  to  lay 
on  red  paint,  and  imitate  the  blush  of  humble 
modesty — ye  that  borrow  virtue's  robes  to  pro- 
cure admiration,  and  put  on  religion's  cloak  to 
hide  your  shameful  deformity — ye  that  deal  in 
external  righteousness,  to  carry  on  with  better 
success  the  most  sordid  of  all  trades,  that  of 
sin  ;  of  the  worst  of  sins,  pride  ;  of  the  worst  of 
pride,  which  is  spiritual — ye  numerous  followers 
of  those  whom  the  prophet  of  Christians  called 
crafty  serpents,  and  soft  brood  of  vipers — ye  to 
whom  he  declared  that  publicans  and  harlots 


140  AN  APPEAL  TO  [part  IV. 

shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  before 
you ;  if  I  call  you  in  last  to  prove  the  desperate 
wickedness  of  the  human  heart,  it  is  not  because 
I  esteem  you  the  weakest  advocates  of  the  truth 
I  contend  for,  but  because  you  really  are  the 
strongest  of  my  witnesses. 

And  now,  candid  reader,  forget  not  plain 
matter  of  fact,  recollect  the  evidence  given  by 
reason,  pass  sentence  upon  these  last  arguraente 
which  I  have  offered  to  thy  consideration,  and 
say,  whether  man's  disposition  and  conduct  to 
his  Creator,  his  fellow-creatures,  and  himself,  do 
not  abundantly  prove  that  he  is  by  nature  in  a 
fallen  and  lost  estate. 


FOURTH  PART. 

The  preceding  arguments  recommend  them- 
selves to  the  common  sense  of  thinking  heathens, 
and  the  conscience  of  reasonable  Deists,  as  be- 
ing all  taken  from  those  two  amazing  volumes, 
which  are  open  and  legible  to  all — the  world 
and  man.  The  following  are  taken  from  a  third 
volume,  the  Bible,  despised  by  the  wits  of  the 
age,  merely  because  they  study  and  understand 
it  even  less  than  the  other  two.  "  The  Bible !" 
says  one  of  them  with  a  smile,  "  save  yourself 
the  trouble  of  producing  arguments  drawn  from 
that  old  legend,  unless  you  first  demonstrate  its 
authenticity  by  the  noble  faculty  to  which  you 
appeal  in  these  pages."     For  the  sake  of  such 


TART  rV.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  141 

objectors,  I  here  premise,  by  way  of  digression, 
a  few  rational  arguments  to  evince,  as  far  as  my 
contracted  plan  will  allow,  the  Divine  authority 
of  the  Scriptures. 

1.  The  sacred  penmen,  the  prophets,  and 
apostles,  were  holy,  excellent  men,  and  would 
not — artless,  illiterate  men,  and  therefore  could 
not — lay  the  horrible  scheme  of  deluding  man- 
kind. The  hope  of  gain  did  not  influence  them, 
for  they  were  self-denying  men,  that  left  all  to 
follow  a  Master,  who  had  not  where  to  lay  his 
head,  and  whose  grand  initiating  maxim  was. 
Except  a  man  forsake  all  that  he  hath  he  can  not 
be  my  disciple.  They  were  so  disinterested, 
that  tiiey  secured  nothing  on  earth  but  hunger 
and  nakedness,  stocks  and  prisons,  racks  and 
tortures ;  which,  indeed,  was  all  that  they  could 
or  did  expect  in  consequence  of  Christ's  express 
declarations.  Neither  was  a  desire  of  honor 
the  motive  of  their  actions ;  for  the  Lord  him- 
self was  treated  with  the  utmost  contempt,  and 
had  more  than  once  assured  them  that  they 
should  certainly  share  the  same  fate ;  besides, 
they  were  humble  men,  not  above  working  as 
mechanics  for  a  coarse  maintenance,  and  so  little 
desirous  of  human  regard,  that  they  exposed 
to  the  world  the  meanness  of  their  birth  and  oc- 
cupations, their  great  ignorance  and  scandalous 
falls. 

Add  to  this,  that  they  were  so  many,  and  lived 
at  such  distance  of  time  and  place  from  each 
other,  that,  had  they  been  impostors,  it  would 
have  been   impracticable  for  them  to  contrive 


1 42  AK  APPEAL  TO  [pART  IV. 

find  carry  on  a  forgery  without  being  detected. 
And  as  they  neither  would  nor  could  deceive  the 
world,  so  they  neither  could  nor  would  be  de- 
ceived themselves;  for  they  were  days,  months, 
and  years,  eye  and  ear  witnesses  of  the  things 
which  they  relate ;  and  when  they  had  not  the 
fullest  evidence  of  important  facts,  they  insisted 
upon  new  proofs,  and  even  upon  sensible  dem- 
onstrations: as,  for  instance,  Thomas,  in  the 
matter  of  our  Lord's  resurrection,  John  xx,  25. 
And  to  leave  us  no  room  to  question  their  sin- 
cerity, most  of  them  joyfully  sealed  the  truth 
of  their  doctrines  with  their  own  blood.  Did  so 
many  and  such  marks  of  veracity  ever  meet  in 
any  other  authors  ? 

2.  But  even  while  they  lived,  they  confirmed 
their  testimony  by  a  variety  of  miracles,  wrought 
in  divers  places,  and  for  a  number  of  years ; 
sometimes  before  thousands  of  their  enemies,  as 
the  miracles  of  Christ  and  his  disciples;  some- 
times before  hundreds  of  thousands,  as  those  of 
Moses.  These  miracles  were  so  well  known 
and  attested,  that  when  both  Christ  and  Moses 
appealed  to  their  authenticity,  before  their  bit- 
terest opposers,  mentioning  the  persons  upon 
whom,  as  well  as  the  particular  times  when,  and 
the  places  where,  they  had  been  performed ,  the 
facts  were  never  denied,  but  passed  over  in  si- 
lence, or  maliciously  attributed  to  the  prince  of 
the  devils.  By  such  a  pitiful  slander  as  this. 
Porphyry,  Hierocles,  Celsus,  and  Julian,  the 
Apostate,  those  learned  and  inveterate  enemies 
of  Christianity,  endeavored — as   the  Pharisees 


PART  IV.}  MATTER  OF  FACT.  143 

had  done  before  them — ^to  sap  the  argument 
founded  upon  the  miracles  of  Christ  and  his 
disciples.  So  sure,  then,  as  God  would  never 
have  displayed  his  arm  in  the  most*  aston- 
ishing manner  for  the  support  of  imposture, 
the  sacred  penmen  had  their  commission  from 
the  Almighty,  and  their  writings  are  his  lively 
oracles. 

3.  Reason  itself  dictates  that  nothing  but  the 
plainest  matter  of  fact  could  induce  so  many 
thousands  of  prejudiced  and  persecuting  Jew^s 
to  embrace  the  humbling,  self-denying  doctrine 
of  the  cross,  which  they  so  much  despised  and 
abhorred.  Nothing  but  the  clearest  evidence, 
arising  from  undoubted  truth,  could  make  mul- 
titudes of  lawless,  luxurious  heathens,  receive, 
follow,  and  transmit  to  posterity,  the  doctrine 
and  writings  of  the  apostles ;  especially  at  a  time 
when  the  vanity  of  their  pretensions  to  miracles, 
and  the  gift  of  tongues,  could  be  so  easily  dis- 
covered, liad  they  been  impostors — at  a  time 
when  the  profession  of  Christianity  exposed  per- 
sons of  all  ranks  to  the  greatest  contempt,  and 
most  imminent  danger.  In  this  respect  the  case 
of  the  primitive  Christians  widely  differed  from 
that  of  Mohammed's  followers;  for  those  who 

*  Once,  indeed,  the  Lord  permitted  the  mafficians  of 
Effvpt  so  to  use  their  art,  as  to  counterfeit,  for  a  time,  some 
of  Moses'  miracles;  but  it  was  only  to  make  the  authen- 
ticity of  others  more  conspicuous;  this  being  the  happy 
effect  of  the  contest,  when  those  ministers  of  Satan  with- 
drew confounded,  and  were  forced  to  acknowledge  that  the 
finger  of  God  was  evidently  displayed  through  tne  rod  of 
their  antagonist. 


144  AN  APPEAL  TO  [p ART  IV. 

adhered  to  the  warlike,  violent  impostor,  saved 
their  lives  and  properties,  or  attained  to  honor 
by  their  new,  easy,  and  flesh- pleasing  religion: 
but  those  who  devoted  themselves  to  the  meek, 
self-denying,  crucified  Jesus,  were  frequently 
spoiled  of  their  goods,  and  cruelly  put  to  death ; 
or,  if  they  escaped  with  their  lives,  were  looked 
upon  as  the  very  dregs  of  mankind. 

Add  to  this,  that  some  of  the  most  profound 
parts  of  the  Scriptures  were  addressed  to  the 
inhabitants  of  polite  Greece,  and  triumphant 
Rome,  among*  whom  philosophy  and  literature, 
with  the  fine  arts,  and  the  sciences,  were  in  the 
highest  perfection,  and  who,  consequently,  were 
less  liable  to  be  the  dupes  of  forgery  and  im- 
posture. On  the  contrary,  gross  ignorance 
overspread  those  countries  where  Mohammed 
first  broached  his  absurd  opinions,  and  propa- 

*  Not  many  noble,  not  many  wise  are  called,  says  the 
apostle;  nevertheless,  some  of  both,  even  at  the  rise  of 
Christianit}-,  openly  stood  up  for  its  truth.  Among  the 
noble  we  find  Joseph,  a  member  of  the  great  Jewish  coun- 
cil; Dionysius,  one  of  the  judges  at  Athens;  and  Flavius 
Clemens,  a  Roman  senator;  and  among  the  wise,  Quad- 
ratus,  Aristides,  and  Athenagoras,  Athenian  philosophers; 
Clemens,  Arnobius,  Amnionius,  Annatolius,  etc.,  men  of 
great  learning  at  Alexandria;  and  at  Rome,  Justin  Martyr 
and  TertuUian,  both  famous  apologists  for  the  religion  of 
Jesus;  the  latter  of  whom,  in  the  second  century,  told  the 
Roman  governors,  that  their  corporations,  councils,  and 
armies,  and  the  Emperor's  palace,  were  full  of  Christians; 
nor  is  this  improbable,  since  so  early  as  St.  Paul's  days 
the  saints  of  Cffisar's  household  saluted  those  of  the  Roman 
provinces,  Phil,  iv,  22.  How  credulous  are  they  who  can 
believe  that  persons  of  such  rank  and  learning  could  be 
deluded  by  Jewish  fishermen  into  the  worship  of  a  crucified 
impoitor! 


PAKT  rv,]       MATTER  OF  PACT.  14S 

gated  them  with  the  sword;  a  sure  sign  this, 
that  the  sacred  writers  did  not,  like  that  impos- 
tor, avail  themselves  of  the  ignorance,  weakness, 
and  helplessness  of  their  followers,  to  impose 
falsehood  upon  them. 

4.  When  the  authenticity  of  the  miracles  was 
attested  by  thousands  of  hving  witnesses,  relig- 
ious rites  were  instituted  and  performed  by 
hundreds  of  thousands,  agreeable  to  Scripture 
injunctions,  in  order  to  perpetuate  that  authen- 
ticity. And  these  solemn  ceremonies  have  ever 
since  been  kept  up  in  all  parts  of  the  world ;  the 
passover  by  the  Jews,  in  remembrance  of  Moses' 
miracles  in  Egypt;  and  the  eucharist  by  Chris- 
tians, as  a  memorial  of  Christ's  death,  and  the 
miracles  that  accompanied  it,  some  of  which  are 
recorded  by  Phlegon  the  Trallian,  a  heathen 
historian. 

5.  The  Scriptures  have  not  only  the  external 
sanction  of  miracles,  but  the  internal  stamp  of 
the  omniscient  God  by  a  variety  of  prophecies, 
some  of  which  have  already  been  most  exactly 
confirmed  by  the  event  predicted;  witness  the 
rise  and  fall  of  the  four  grand  monarchies  ac- 
cording to  Daniel's  prophecy,  chapters  ii  and 
vii,  and  the  destruction  of  the  city  and  temple 
of  Jerusalem,  foretold  by  Christ,  Matt,  xxiv,  2 ; 
while  others  are  every  day  fulfilled  in  the  face 
of  infidels,  particularly  the  persecution  of  the 
real  disciples  of  Christ  in  our  times,  as  well  as 
in  all  ages,  see  Matt,  x,  22,  35,  John  xv,  20, 
and  Gal.  iv,  29 ;  and  the  present  miserable  state 
of   the   Jews,   so   exactly   described   by  Moses 

10 


146  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  IV. 

above   three    thousand    years   ago;   see   Deut. 
xxviii,  65. 

6.  Sometimes  the  plainest  prophecies,  the 
most  public  miracles,  and  the  annals  of  king- 
doms, well  known  when  those  books  were  first 
received,  wonderfully  concur  to  demonstrate 
their  authenticity.  Take  one  instance  out  of 
many.  A  prophet  out  of  Judah,  above  three 
hundred  years  before  the  event,  thus  foretold 
the  pollution  of  Jeroboam's  altar  at  Bethel, 
before  Jeroboam  himself,  who  was  attended 
by  his  priests,  his  courtiers,  and  no  doubt  a 
vast  number  of  idolatrous  worshipers :  0  altar, 
altar,  thus  saith  the  Lord,  Behold,  a  child 
shall  be  born  unto  the  house  of  David,  Jo- 
siah  by  name,  who  shall  burn  men's  bones 
upon  thee ;  and  this  is  the  sign :  Behold,  this 
very  day,  the  altar  shall  be  rent,  and  the  ashes 
that  are  upon  it  scattered.  King  Jeroboam, 
inflamed  with  anger,  stretched  forth  his  hand 
against  the  man  of  God,  saying  to  his  guards. 
Lay  hold  on  him;  but  his  extended  hand  was 
dried  up  so  that  he  could  not  pull  it  in  again 
to  him:  the  rending  of  the  altar,  and  scatter- 
ing of  the  fire,  instantly  took  place ;  and  the 
capital  prophecy  was  exactly  fulfilled  by  pious 
king  Josiah,  as  you  may  see  by  comparing  1 
Kings  xiii,  1,  etc.,  with  2  Kings  xxiii,  15,  etc. 
Can  we  reasonably  suppose,  that  books  con- 
taining accounts  of  such  public  events,  would 
have  been  received  as  divine  by  a  divided  peo- 
ple, if  their  authenticity  had  not  been  confirmed 
by  indubitable  matter  of  fact?     Nay,  is  it  not 


PART  IV.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  147 

as  absurd  to  assert  it,  as  it  would  be  to  affirm 
that  the  oflBces  for  the  5th  of  November,  and 
the  30th  of  January,  were  forged  by  crafty 
priests;  and  that  the  Papists,  Puritans,  and 
Royahsts  of  the  hist  century,  agreed  to  impose 
upon  the  world  the  history  of  the  gunpowder 
plot,  and  of  King  Charles'  decollation,  with 
which  those  parts  of  our  liturgy  are  so  insepara- 
bly connected  ? 

1.  This  scattered,  despised  people,  the  irrec- 
oncilable enemies  of  the  Christians,  keep,  with 
amazing  care,*  the  Old  Testament,  full  of  the 
prophetic  history  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  by  that 
means  afford  the  world  a  striking  proof  that  the 
New  Testament  is  true,  and  Christians  in  their 
turn  show,  that  the  Old  Testament  is  abundantly 
confirmed   and   explained   by   the   New.      The 

*  If  the  histories  contained  in  the  Old  Testament  were, 
in  general,  for  the  credit  of  the  Jews,  the  love  of  praise 
mignt,  indeed,  have  engaged  some  of  them  to  join  in  a 
public  forgery.  But  that  book,  of  which  they  have  always 
oeen  so  tenacious,  presents  the  world  chiefly  with  an  ac- 
count of  their  monstrous  ingratitude,  unparalleled  obsti- 
nacy, perpetual  rebellions,  abominable  idolatries,  and  of 
the  fearful  judgments  which  their  wickedness  brought 
upon  them.  Moses,  who  leads  the  van  of  their  sacred 
authors,  sums  up  his  history  of  the  Israelites,  and  draws 
up  their  character  in  these  disgraceful  words,  which  he 
spoke  to  their  face:  You  have  been  rebellious  against  the 
Lord  from  the  day  that  I  knew  you,  Deut.  ix,  24.  And 
even  David  and  Solomon,  their  greatest  kings,  are  repre- 
sented in  those  books  as  guilty  of  the  greatest  enormities. 
O  ye  Deists,  I  appeal  to  your  reason,  and  ask,  Would  you 
die  for,  would  you  even  connive  at,  a  notorious  forgery, 
supposing  the  design  of  it  were  merely  to  impose  upon  the 
world  as  divine,  a  book  that  should  perpetually  stigmatize 
your  ancestors,  and  fix  horrid  blots  upon  the  names  for 
which  you  have  the  greatest  veneration? 


148  AN  APPEAL  TO  [pART  IV. 

Earl  of  Rochester,  tlie  great  wit  of  the  last  cen- 
tury, was  so  struck  with  this  proof,  that  upon 
reading  the  fifty-third  chapter  of  Isaiah,  with 
floods  of  penitential  tears  he  lamented  his  former 
infidelity,  and  warmly  embraced  the  faith  which 
he  had  so  publicly  ridiculed. 

8.  To  say  nothing  of  the  venerable  antiquity, 
and  the  wonderful  preservation  of  those  books, 
some  of  which  are  by  far  the  most  ancient  in 
the  world — to  pass  over  the  inimitable  simpUcity, 
or  true  sublimity  of  their  style,  they  carry  with 
them  such  characters  of  truth  as  command  the 
respect  of  every  unprejudiced  reader. 

They  open  to  us  the  mystery  of  the  creation, 
the  nature  of  God,  angels,  and  man,  the  immor- 
tality* of  the  soul,  the  end  for  which  we  were 
made,  the  origin  and  connection  of  moral  and 
natural  evil,  the  vanity  of  this  world  and  the 
glory  of  the  next.  There  Ave  see  inspired  shep- 
herds, tradesmen,  and  fishermen,  surpassing  as 
much  the  greatest  philosophers  as  these  did  the 
herd  of  mankind,  both  in  meekness  of  wisdom 
and  sublimity  of  doctrine — there  we  admire  the 
purest  morality  in  the  world,  agreeable  to  the 
dictates  of  sound  reason,  confirmed  by  the  wit- 
ness which  God  has  placed  for  himself  in  our 
breast,  and  exemplified  in  the  lives  of  men  of 
like  passions  with  ourselves — there  we  discover 

*  It  is  remarkable  that  the  wisest  heathens,  with  all  their 
philosophy,  seldom  attained  to  a  full  assurance  of  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul.  Cicero  himself  says:  Nescio  quo- 
mododum  lego  assentior;  cum  posui  librum,  et  mecum  ipse 
de  immortalitate  animoruni  coepi  cogitare  assentio  omnis  ilia 
elabitur. — Tmc.  Qxutst.,  lib.  1. 


PART  IV.]       MATTER  OF  FACT.  149 

a  vein  of  ecclesiastical  history  and  theological 
truth,  consistently  running  through  a  collection 
of  sixty-six  different  books,  written  by  various 
authors  in  different  languages,  during  the  space 
of  above  fifteen  hundred  years — there  we  find, 
as  in  a  deep  and  pure  spring,  all  the  genuine 
drops  and  streams  of  spiritual  knowledge  which 
can  possibly  be  met  with  in  the  largest  libra- 
ries— there  the  workings  of  the  human  heart  are 
described,  in  a  manner  that  demonstrates  the 
inspiration  of  the  Searcher  of  hearts — there  we 
have  a  particular  account  of  all  our  spiritual 
maladies,  with  their  various  symptoms,  and  the 
method  of  a  certain  cure,  a  cure  that  has  been 
witnessed  by  millions  of  martyrs  and  departed 
saints,  and  is  now  enjoyed  by  thousands  of  good 
men,  who  would  account  it  an  honor  to  seal  the 
truth  of  the  Scriptures  with  their  own  blood — 
there  you  meet  with  the  noblest  strains  of  peni- 
tential and  joyous  devotion,  adapted  to  the  dis- 
positions and  states  of  all  travelers  to  Sion — 
and  there  you  read  those  awful  threatenings 
and  cheering  promises  which  are  daily  fulfilled 
in  the  consciences  of  men,  to  the  admiration  of 
believers,  and  the  astonishment  of  attentive  in- 
fidels. 

9.  The  wonderful  efficacy  of  the  Scriptures 
is  another  proof  that  they  are  of  God.  When 
they  are  faithfully  opened  by  his  ministers,  and 
powerfully  applied  by  his  Spirit,  they  wound  and 
heal,  they  kill  and  make  alive,  they  alarm  the 
careless,  turn  or  enrage  the  wicked,  direct  the 
lost,  support  the  tempted,  strengthen  the  weak. 


150  AN  APPEAL  TO  [pART  IV. 

comfort  mourners,  and  nourish  pious  souls.  As 
the  woman  of  Samaria  said  of  Jesus,  Come, 
see  a  man  that  told  me  all  that  ever  I  did :  Is 
not  this  the  Christ?  a  good  man  can  say  of 
the  Bible,  "Come,  see  a  book  that  told  me  all 
that  was  in  my  heart,  and  acquainted  me  with 
the  various  trials  and  dangers  I  have  met  with 
in  my  spiritual  travels — a  book  where  I  have 
found  those  truths  which,  like  a  divinely-tem- 
pered sword,  have  cut  my  way  through  all  the 
snares  and  forces  of  my  spiritual  adversaries, 
and  by  whose  directions  my  soul  has  happily 
entered  the  paradise  of  divine  and  brotherly 
love.     Is  not  this  the  book  of  God?" 

10.  To  conclude:  it  is  exceedingly  remarka- 
ble, that  the  more  humble  and  holy  people  are, 
the  more  they  read,  admire,  and  value  the  Scrip- 
tures, and,  on  the  contrary,  the  more  self- 
conceited,  worldly-minded,  and  wicked,  the  more 
they  neglect,  despise,  and  asperse  them. 

As  for  the  objections  which  are  raised  against 
their  perspicuity  and  consistency,  those  who  are 
both  pious  and  learned,  know  that  they  are  gen- 
erally founded  on  prepossession,  and  the  want 
of  understanding  in  spiritual  things;  or  on  our 
ignojance  of  several  customs,  idioms,  and  cir- 
cumstances, which  were  perfectly  known  when 
those  books  were  written.  Frequently,  also,  the 
immaterial  error  arises  merely  from  a  wrong 
punctuation,  or  a  mistake  of  copiers,  printers,  or 
translators;  as  the  daily  discoveries  of  pious 
critics,  and  ingenuous  confessions  of  unprejudiced 
inquirers,  abundantly  prove. 


PART  IV.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  151 

To  the  preceding  arguments  I  beg  leave  to 
add  the  following  queries.  Do  not  disbelievers, 
by  supposing  that  the  Scriptures  are  a  forged 
book,  and,  consequently,  that  Christianity  is  a 
false  rehgion,  run  upon  the  very  rocks  which 
they  seem  so  afraid  of?  And  may  they  not  be 
charged  with  indirectly  setting  their  seal  to  opin- 
ions far  more  incredible  than  those  which  they 
reject? 

1.  O,  ye  disputers  of  this  world,  if  ye  believe 
that  Moses  and  Jesus  Christ,  St.  Peter  and  St. 
Paul,  publicly  worked  sham  miracles  for  years, 
in  various  cities  and  countries,  before  thousands 
of  their  sharp-sighted  opposers,  without  ever 
being  detected  in  any  of  their  tricks,  might  you 
not  as  reasonably  believe  that  thousands  of 
shrewd  men  were  once  turned  into  stupid  asses  ? 

2.  If  you  believe  that  the  Gospel  is  the  pro- 
duction of  human  deceit,  and  yet  that  in  the 
prodigious  number  of  apostates  once  concerned 
in  carrying  on  the  amazing  villainy,  such  as 
Judas,  Demas,  Simon  Magus,  Alexander  the 
coppersmith,  who  did  St.  Paul  much  evil,  etc., 
not  one  was  ever  found  that  would  prove  the 
forgery,  might  you  not  as  reasonably  believe 
that  if  Mr.  Wilkes,  and  all  his  friends,  knew  of 
a  gross  villainy  carried  on  by  the  ministry,  in 
order  to  turn  the  kingdom  upside  down,  neither 
be  nor  any  one  of  them  could  ever  be  prevailed 
upon  to  disclose  and  prove  it  to  the  world?* 

*  Pliny,  a  learned  and  prudent  Roman  governor,  who 
was  employed  by  the  Emperor  Trajan  in  stopping  the 
progress  of  Christiaaity,  wrote  to  him,  that  the  apostates 


152  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  IV. 

3.  You  believe  that  the  miracles  and  resur- 
rection of  Christ,  together  with  the  gifts  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  were  nothing  but  enthusiastical  or 
knavish  pretensions ;  and  yet  you  are  forced  to 
grant,  that  thousands  of  Jews,  strongly  attached 
to  their  religion,  amazingly  averse  to  that  of 
Jesus,  and  guilty  of  persecuting  him  to  death, 
took  him  openly  for  their  Savior  a  few  weeks 
after  they  had  seen  him  publicly  scourged,  and 
in  the  very  city  in  sight  of  which  he  had  just 
been  crucified  between  two  thieves.  Now,  is 
not  this  as  absurd  as  to  believe,  that  if  a  few 
fishermen  cried  up  the  last  person  hanged  in 
London  for  a  notorious  forgery,  and  if  they  af- 
firmed that  he  was  the  Son  of  God,  appealing 
to  a  great  number  of  miracles,  supposed  to  have 
been  wrought  by  him  in  the  squares  and  hos- 
pitals of  the  metropolis,  and  especially  in  St. 
Paul's  church-yard,  and  maintaining  that  so/ne 
of  them  had  been  aknowledgcd  genuine  by  the 
great   council   of  the   nation,*  they  could,  by 

affirmed  the  whole  of  their  crime  had  been,  to  meet  be- 
fore daj',  and  sing  a  hymn  to  Christ  as  to  their  God. 
His  own  words  are,  "Affirmabant,  banc  fuisse  summam 
vel  culpse  suae  vel  erroris,  quod  essent  soliti  stato  die 
ante  lucem  convenire,  carmenque  Christo  quasi  Deo 
dicere." 

*  Some  remarkable  instances  of  this  we  have  in  the 
sacred  books,  published  when  the  facts  above  mentioned 
therein  were  notorious,  and  when  some  of  the  persons 
named  were  probably  yet  alive.  After  the  resurrection 
of  Lazarus,  the  chief  priests  and  the  Pharisees  gathered  a 
council,  and  said,  What  do  we?  for  this  man  does  many 
miracles.  If  we  let  him  alone,  all  men  will  believe  on 
him,  John  xi,  47.  And  after  Peter  and  John  had  publicly 
cured  the  cripple,  who  osed  to  beg  at  the  gate  of  the  temple, 


PART  IV.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  153 

such  notorious  lies,  engage  thousands  of  citizens, 
and  some  aldermen,  to  put  all  their  trust  in  the 
villain  hanged  at  their  request  ? 

4.  You  believe  that  Christianity  is  a  gross  im- 
posture, and  yet  you  can  not  deny  that  thousands 
of  learned  Romans  and  wise  Greeks,  who  agreed 
to  despise  the  Jews  above  all  other  men,  took 
for  their  Savior  that  very  Jesus,  of  whom  his 
own  countrymen  had  been  ashamed,  and  whom 
they  had  crucified  as  an  impostor.  Is  not 
this  as  absurd  as  to  believe  that  thousands  of 
wise  Englishmen,  and  sensible  Frenchmen,  could 
be  induced,  by  the  absurd  tale  of  two  or  three 
Hottentots,  to  worship  a  certain  Hottentot  whom 
the  whole  nation  of  Hottentots  had  condemned 
to  be  hanged,  as  being  more  worthy  of  an  igno- 
minious death  than  the  bloody  ringleader  of  a 
seditious  mob? 

5.  If  you  believe,  with  one  of  the  popes,  that 
the  history  of  Christ  "is  a  mere  fable,"  and  that 
there  never  was  such  an  extraordinary  person, 
you  believe  that  the  heathens,  the  Jews,  and  the 
Mohammedans,  have  agreed  with  the  Christians, 
their  sworn  enemies,  to  carry  on  the  most  amaz- 
ing imposture;  for  Pliny,  Tacitus,  Lucian,  and 
Suetonius,  heathen  authors,  who  lived  soon  after 
Christ,  make  express  mention  of  him ;  as  do  also 

the  rulers,  and  elders,  and  scribes,  and  Annas  the  high 
priest,  and  Caiaphas,  and  John,  and  Alexander,  and  as 
many  as  were  of  the  kindred  of  the  high  priest,  were 
gathered  together  at  Jerusalem,  saying,  What  shall  we  do 
to  these  men?  for  that,  indeed,  a  NOTABLE  MIRACLE  has 
been  done  by  them,  is  manifest  to  ALL  them  that  dwell  at 
Jerusalem,  and  we  can  not  deny  it,  Acts  iv,  5-16. 


164  AN  APPEAL  TO  [pART  IV. 

Mohammed,  many  of  the  rabbis,  and  JuHan  the 
emperor,  that  powerful  and  crafty  apostate,  who 
not  only  never  denied  Christ's  existence,  but 
openly  acknowledged  that  Paul,  Mark,  Matthew, 
and  Peter,  were  the  authors  of  the  gospels  and 
epistles  which  bear  their  name.  Now,  is  not 
this  as  ridiculous  as  to  believe  that  the  pope,  the 
mufti,  and  the  inquisitors,  have  laid  their  heads 
with  Messrs.  Voltaire,  Hume,  and  Rousseau,  to 
favor  a  forgery  surversive  of  Popery,  Moham- 
medanism, and  infidelity? 

6.  If  you  deny  the  authenticity  of  the  four 
gospels,  which  are  the  only  ancient  histories 
that  we  have  of  our  Savior,  and  yet  believe  that 
there  was  such  a  personage  as  Jesus  Christ, 
whose  fame  so  spread  through  the  Roman  em- 
pire, that,  in  less  than  three  hundred  and  thirty 
years,  he  was  not  only  reckoned  superior  to  the 
Roman  emperor,  but  to  Jupiter  himself,  and 
that,  nevertheless,  not  one  historian  during  all 
that  time  gave  the  world  a  particular  account 
of  him — which  must  be  the  case,  if  the  four 
gospels  are  a  forgery — might  you  not  as  rea- 
sonably suppose,  that,  if  a  blazing  meteor  ap- 
peared in  our  day,  and  echpsed  the  stars,  the 
moon,  and  the  sun  itself,  no  astronomer,  for 
several  centuries,  would  take  particular  notice  of 
so  wonderful  a  phenomenon? 

7.  If  the  Gospel  is  a  delusion,  you  believe 
that  St.  Paul,  who  was  a  man  of  sense,  learning, 
and  intrepidity,  was  seduced  by — ^nobody,  to 
preach  for  near  thirty  years,  with  astonishing 
zeal   and    matchless   hardships,   an    imposture. 


PART  IV,]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  155 

against  the  abettors  of  which  he  just  before 
breathed  nothing  but  threatenings  and  slaughter. 
Would  it  be  half  so  absurd  to  believe  that  Mr. 
Wilkes  has  suddenly  commenced  the  minister's 
advocate,  goes  through  the  kingdom  to  recom- 
mend the  present  administration,  and  accounts  it 
an  honor  to  be  mobbed,  whipped,  or  stoned,  in 
every  borough,  for  his  excessive  attachment  to 
the  king? 

8.  The  instantaneous  conversion  of  thousands 
was  wrought  by  means  of  public  appeals  to  no- 
torious matter  of  fact.  Hear  the  language  of 
the  apostles  to  the  Jews:  This  ye  yourselves 
know,  Acts,  ii,  24.  Ye  know  the  thing  done 
through  all  Judea,  Acts  x,  3*7,  38.  The  king 
knowing  these  things.  This  thing  was  not  done 
in  a  corner.  Acts  xxvi,  26.  Now,  if  Christianity 
is  not  founded  upon  indubitable  facts,  might  you 
not  as  well  believe  that  twelve  men,  broke  loose 
from  bedlam,  brought  last  year  thousands  of 
Deists  over  to  Christianity,  by  saying  to  them, 
"  Ye  know  " — what  you  are  perfect  strangers  to ; 
that  is,  "  Ye  know  "  that  we  are  a  pack  of  bed- 
lamites ? 

9.  If  the  Gospel  is  forged,  you  believe  that  the 
Corinthians,  etc.,  handed  down  to  posterity,  as  a 
sacred  treasure,  epistles  where  St.  Paul  men- 
tions their  amazing  conversion  from  gross  im- 
moralities, congratulates  them  about  the  spiritual 
or  miraculous  gifts  in  which  they  abounded, 
1  Cor.  xii,  1,  and  gives  them  particular  direc- 
tions how  to  use  the  gift  of  tongues  to  edification, 
when  yet  they  were  totally  unacquainted  with 


156  AN  APPEAL  TO  [pABT  IV. 

any  such  things.  Might  you  not  with  equal 
wisdom  beUeve,  that  if  Mr.  Wilkes  wrote  to 
the  house  of  commons  a  congratulatory  epistle 
about  their  having  received,  by  the  laying  on 
of  his  hands,  the  power  of  speaking  Turkish, 
Arabic,  and  Chinese,  they  would  carefully  trans- 
mit his  letter  to  the  next  generation  as  a  divine 
performance ;  and  that  none  of  Mr,  Wilkes'  ene- 
mies would  expose  the  impudence  of  so  absurd 
a  pretension? 

10.  If  you  say  that  the  apostles  were  fools, 
you  must  believe  that  foolish  fishermen  laid  a 
scheme  with  so  much  wisdom,  and  carried  it  on 
with  so  much  art,  as  to  deceive  multitudes  of 
Greeks,  noted  for  their  acuteness,  and  numbers 
of  Romans,  famous  for  their  prudence.  Might 
you  not  as  well  believe  that  twelve  poor,  unarmed 
idiots,  once  combined  to  take  the  strongest  towns 
in  Europe,  and  accomplished  their  strange  de- 
signs by  means  that  strike  the  profoundest  poli- 
ticians with  astonishment? 

11.  If  you  affirm  that  the  apostles  were  cheats 
and  liars,  you  run  into  as  great  a  difficulty ;  for 
you  must  believe  that  the  greatest  knaves  that 
ever  existed,  contrary  to  their  own  principles 
and  advantage,  went  through  the  world  exposing 
themselves  to  the  greatest  hardships,  and  se- 
verest tortures,  to  death,  to  recommend,  both 
by  their  example  and  precepts,  the  strictest  piety 
toward  God,  and  the  most  scrupulous  honesty 
toward  man;  perpetually  denouncing  eternal 
destruction  to  cheats  and  hypocrites,  and  the 
torments  of  a  lake  that  bumeth  with  fire  and 


PART  nr.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  16Y 

brimstone  to  every  one  that  loveth  or  maketh  a 
lie.  Would  it  be  more  absurd  to  believe  that 
the  twelve  greatest  epicures  in  England  have, 
for  a  course  of  years,  fulfilled  a  mutual  agree- 
ment of  preaching,  night  and  day,  abstinence 
and  fasting  through  the  three  kingdoms,  merely 
to  have  the  pleasure  of  starving  to  death  for 
their  pains? 

12.  To  conclude:  if  the  Gospel — and  conse- 
quently the  Scripture — is  an  imposture,  you  sup- 
pose that  some  poor  Galilean  fishermen,  only 
by  means  of  an  absurd  lie,  which  they  told  with- 
out wit,  and  wrote  without  elegance,  foiled  the 
multitude  of  the  Jewish  and  Pagan  priests,  who 
had  prejudice,  custom,  possession,  learning,  ora- 
tory, wealth,  laws,  governors,  and  emperors,  on 
their  side ;  yea,  and  truth  also,  upon  your  princi- 
ples, at  least  when  they  decried  the  Gospel  as  a 
cheat.  Would  it  be  more  ridiculous  to  believe 
that  David  killed  Goliath  with  a  grain  of  sand, 
and  cut  off  his  head  with  a  spire  of  grass ;  or, 
that  our  sailors  sink  men-of-war  with  a  puff  of 
breath,  while  our  soldiers  batter  down  ramparts 
with  snowballs? 

O  ye  sons  of  worldly  wisdom,  drop  your  un- 
just prejudices;  candidly  weigh  both  sides  of 
the  question,  and  you  will  soon  see,  that  in  re- 
jecting the  Gospel  as  an  imposture,  you  display 
a  far  greater  degree  of  credulity  than  we  do  in 
cordially  receiving  it. 

After  this  short  defense  of  the  oracles  of  God, 
and  this  little  attack  upon  the  persons  who  sus- 
pect their  authenticity,  I  hope  I  may — consist- 


168  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  IV. 

ently  with  the  plan  of  an  appeal  to  reason — 
produce  from  the  Scriptures  a  few  more  argu- 
ments to  prove  the  original  depravity  and  lost 
estate  of  mankind. 

THIRTY-FIRST    ARGUMENT. 

The  spiritual  life  of  the  soul  consists  in  its 
union  with  God,  as  the  natural  hfe  of  the  body 
does  in  its  union  with  the  soul:  and  as  poison 
and  the  sword  kill  the  latter,  so  unbeUef  and  sin 
destroy  the  former. 

The  first  man  was  endued  with  this  twofold 
life.  God,  says  the  divine  historian,  breathed 
into  him  the  breath  of  Uves,  and  he  became 
a  living  body  and  a  living  soul ;  he  had  both 
an  animal  life  in  common  with  beasts  and  a 
spiritual  life  in  common  with  angels.  St.  Paul, 
who  calls  this  angelical  hfe  the  life  of  God, 
intimates  that  it  consisted  both  in  that  experi- 
mental knowledge  of  our  Creator,  wherein,  says 
our  Church,  "standeth  our  eternal  life,"  and  in 
righteousness  and  true  holiness,  the  moral  and 
most  glorious  image  of  the  supreme  Being. 

To  suppose  man  was  created  void  of  this  es- 
sential knowledge  and  holy  love,  is  to  suppose 
he  came  very  wicked  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
Parent  of  all  good  ;  for  what  is  a  rational  crea- 
ture that  neither  knows  nor  loves  his  Creator, 
but  a  monster  of  stupidity  and  ingratitude,  a 
wretch  actually  dead  to  God,  and  deserving 
present  destruction? 

When  the  Lord  therefore  said  to  man,  in  the 
day  that  thou  eatest  thereof,  that  is,  in  the  day 


PART  rV.]       MATTKR  OF  FACT.  159 

that  thou  sinnest,  thou  shalt  surely  die,  it  was 
as  if  he  had  said,  "in  that  very  day  sin  shall 
assuredly  separate  between  thee  and  the  God 
of  thy  life ;  thou  shalt  certainly  lose  the  glori- 
ous view  which  thou  hast  of  my  boundless 
goodness  and  infinite  perfections;  thou  shalt 
infallibly  quench  the  spirit  of  ardent  love,  and 
stop  the  breath  of  delightful  praise,  by  which 
thou  livest  both  to  my  glory  and  thy  comfort; 
and  thy  soul,  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins,  shall 
remain  in  the  filthy  prison  of  a  mortal  body,  till 
death  breaks  it  open,  to  remove  thee  to  thy  own 
place." 

And  was  not  this  Adam's  case  after  his  fall  ? 
Did  he  not  know  that  he  was  naked — stripped  of 
the  glorious  image  of  his  Creator?  Did  not 
guilty  shame  immediately  prompt  him  to  hide 
and  protect,  as  well  as  he  could,  his  degenerate 
and  enfeebled  body  ?  Devoid  of  the  ardent 
love  he  felt  for  God  before,  and  of  the  pure 
delight  he  enjoyed  in  him,  was  not  he  left  the 
wretched  prey  of  tormenting  fears  ?  Did  he  not 
evidence  his  hatred  of  his  heavenly  Benefactor, 
by  dreading  his  voice,  and  flying  from  him  as 
hastily  as  he  should  have  fled  from  the  infernal 
serpent  ? 

Was  he  not  deprived  of  the  knowledge  by 
which,  at  first  sight,  he  discovered  the  nature  of 
Eve,  and  gave  to  all  living  creatures  names  ex- 
pressive of  their  respective  properties?  Was 
he  not,  T  say,  deprived  of  that  intuitive  knowl- 
edge and  excellent  wisdom,  when  he  foolishly 
hid  himself  among  the  trees  from  his  all  seeing. 


160  AN  APPEAL  TO  [pART  IV. 

omnipresent  Creator  ?  And  is  it  not  evident  that 
he  was  lost  to  all  sense  of  filial  fear  toward  God, 
and  conjugal  love  toward  Eve,  when,  instead 
of  self-accusations,  penitential  confessions,  and 
earnest  pleas  for  mercy,  he  showed  nothing 
at  his  trial  but  stubbornness,  malice,  and  in- 
solence ?  ^ 

Such  was  the  state  of  corruption  into  which 
Adam  had  deplorably  fallen,  before  he  multiplied 
the  human  species.  Now,  according  to  the  in- 
variable laws  of  Providence,  an  upright,  holy 
nature  can  no  more  proceed  from  a  fallen,  sinful 
one,  than  gentle  lambs  can  be  begotten  by  fierce 
tigers,  or  harmless  doves  by  venomous  serpents. 
Common  sense,  therefore,  and  natural  philoso- 
phy, dictate  that  our  first  parents  could  not  com- 
municate the  angelical  life  which  they  had  lost, 
nor  impart  to  their  children  a  better  nature  than 
their  own,  and  that  their  depravity  is  as  much 
ours  by  nature,  as  the  fierceness  of  the  first  lion 
is  the  natural  property  of  all  the  lions  in  the 
world. 

FOUR    OBJECTIONS.     . 

I.  Should  it  be  said,  that  "  this  doctrine 
reflects  on  the  attributes  of  God,  who,  as  the 
wise  and  gracious  Governor  of  the  world, 
should  have  foreseen  and  prevented  the  fall  of 
Adam," 

I  answer,  1.  God  made  man  in  his  image, 
part  of  which  consists  in  free  agency,  or  a  power 
to  determine  his  own  actions.     And  if  creating 


PART  IV.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  161 

a  free  agent  is  not  repugnant  to  Divine  wisdom 
and  goodness,  the  wrong  choice,  or  sin  of  a  free 
agent,  can  be  no  impeachment  of  those  perfec- 
tions in  the  Deity.* 

*  God  answers  thus  for  himself  in  Milton: 

Man  will  fall. 
He  and  his  faithless  prog-eny.     Whose  fault? 
Whose  but  his  own?     Inffrate!  he  had  of  me 
All  he  could  have:  I  made  him  just  and  right; 
Sufficient  to  have  stood,  though  {ree  to  fall, 
Such  I  created  all  th'  ethereal  powers: 
Freely  they  stood  who  stood,  and  fell  who  fell. 
Not  free,  what  proof  could  they  have  given  sincere 
Of  true  allegiance,  constant  faith  or  love, 
Where  only  what  they  needs  must  do  appear'd; 
Not  what  they  would?     What  praise  could  they  receive? 
What  pleasure  I  from  such  obedience  paid, 
When  will  and  reason,  (reason  also  is  choice,) 
Useless  and  vain,  of  freedom  both  despoiled, 
Made  passive  both,  had  served  necessity. 
Not  me?     They,  therefore,  as  to  right  belong'd 
So  were  created,  nor  can  justly  accuse 
Their  Maker,  or  their  making,  or  their  fate. 
As  if  predestination  overruled 
Their  will,  disposed  by  absolute  decree, 
Or  high  foreknowledge.     They  themselves  decreed 
Their  own  revolt,  not  I:  if  I  foreknew, 
Foreknowledge  had  no  influence  on  their  fault, 
Which  had  no  less  proved  certain  unforeknown. 

Young  expresses  the  same  sentiment,  with  his  peculiar 
boldness  and  energy. 

Blame  not  the  bowels  of  the  Deity: 
Man  shall  be  bless'd  as  far  as  man  permits. 
Not  man  alone,  all  rationals.  Heaven  arms 
With  an  illustrious,  but  tremendous  power, 
To  counteract  its  own  most  gracious  ends; 
And  this  of  strict  necessity,  not  choice; 
That  power  denied,  man,  angels  were  no  more 
But  passive  engines,  void  of  praise  or  blame. 
Heaven  wills  our  happiness,  allows  our  doom: 
11 


162  AN  APPKAL  TO  [part  IV. 

2.  Suppose  man  had  not  been  endued  with 
freedom  of  choice,  he  would  only  have  ranked 
among  admirable  machines,  and  nothing  could 
have  been  more  absurd  than  to  place  him  in 
a  state  of  probation.  And  suppose,  when  he 
was  in  that  state,  divine  Power  had  irresistibly- 
turned  the  scale  of  his  will  to  obedience,  the 
trial  would  have  been  prevented,  and  the  counsel 
of  divine  Wisdom  foolishly  defeated. 

3.  God  did  all  that  a  wise  and  good  ruler  of 
rational  and  free  creatures  could  do  to  prevent 
sin.  He  placed  in  Adam's  heart  a  vigorous 
principle  of  holiness;  he  granted  him  sufficient 
strength  to  continue  in  obedience;  he  indulged 
him  with  his  blessed  presence  and  converse  to 
encourage  him  in  the  way  of  duty;  he  strictly 
forbade  him  to  sin ;  he  enforced  the  prohibition 
by  the  fearful  threatening  of  death ;  he  promised 
to  crown  his  continuance  in  holiness  with  a  glo- 
rious immortality,  and  gave  him  the  tree  of  life 
as  a  pledge  of  this  inestimable  blessing.  To 
have  gone  farther  would  have  been  entirely  in- 
consistent with  his  wisdom ;  an  absolute  restraint 
being  as  contrary  to  the  liberty  of  a  moral  agent, 
and  the  nature  of  the  divine  law,  as  chaining 
down  a  harmless  man  that  he  may  not  commit 
murder,  is  contrary  to  the  freedom  of  English- 
men, and  the  laws  of  this  realm.  Nor  can  we, 
either  with  reason  or  decency,  complain  that 

Invites  us  ardently,  but  not  compels: 
Heaven  but  persuatles,  almighty  man  decrees; 
Man  is  the  maker  of  immortal  fates, 
Man  falls  by  man,  if  finally  he  falls. 


PART  IV.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  163 

God  did  not  make  us  absolutely  immutable  and 
perfect  like  himself;  this  is  charging  him  with 
folly,  for  not  enduing  us  with  infinite  wisdom, 
and  knowledge  every  way  boundless;  that  is, 
for  not  making  us  gods  instead  of  men. 

4.  In  case  man  fell,  Divine  mercy  had  de- 
creed his  recovery  by  Jesus  Christ ;  and  when 
the  almighty  Redeemer  shall  have  brought  life 
out  of  death,  and  light  out  of  darkness,  the 
mysterious  drama  of  creation  and  redemption,  of 
which  we  see  but  one  or  two  acts,  will  appear, 
even  to  our  objectors,  every  way  worthy  of  its 
infinitely-wise  and  gracious  Author. 

II.  In  the  mean  time,  they  will  still  urge  that 
"Adam's  posterity  [then  unborn]  could  not  justly 
partake  of  the  consequences  of  his  transgression." 
But  shall  cavils  overthrow  matter  of  fact?  Do 
not  we  see  in  every  unrenewed  person,  the  un- 
belief, pride,  sinful  curiosity,  sensuality,  and 
alienation  from  God,  to  which  our  first  parents 
were  subjected  at  their  fall?  Do  not  women 
bear  children  with  sorrow  as  well  as  Eve  ?  Is 
the  ground  less  cursed  for  us  than  for  Adam ; 
and  do  we  not  toil,  suffer,  and  die,  as  he  did? 
If  this  order  of  things  were  unjust,  would  the 
righteous  God  have  permitted  its  continuance  to 
the  present  time? 

Besides,  Adam  contained  in  himself,  as  in 
miniature,  all  his  posterity.  The  various  nations 
of  men  are  nothing  but  different  branches  grow- 
ing from  that  original  root.  They  are  Adam, 
or  man,  existing  at  large ;  as  the  branches  of  a 
spreading  oak,   with   all   the  acorns   that  have 


164  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  IV. 

grown  upon,  and  dropped  from  them,  during  a 
long  succession  of  summers,  are  nothing  but  tlie 
original  acorn,  unfolding  and  multiplying  itself 
with  all  its  essential  properties.  It  is,  then,  as 
ridiculous  to  wonder  that  the  sons  of  depraved 
Adam  should  naturally  be  depraved,  as  that  an 
acorn  should  naturally  produce  an  oak,  and  a 
poisonous  root  a  malignant  plant.     Again : 

Adam  was  the  general  head,  representative, 
and  father  of  mankind;  and  we  suffer  for  his 
rebellion  legally ;  as  the  children  of  those  who 
have  sold  themselves  for  slaves  are  bom  in  a 
state  of  wretched  slavery ;  and  a&  the  descend- 
ants of  a  noble  traitor  lose  the  title  by  their 
ancestor's  crime;  naturally,  as  the  sons  of  a 
bankrupt  suffer  poverty  for  their  father's  ex- 
travagance, or  as  Gehazi's  leprosy  clave  to  him 
and  his  seed  for  ever;  and  unavoidably,  as  an 
unborn  child  shares  the  fate  of  his  unhappy 
mother,  when  she  inadvertently  poisons,  or  des- 
perately stabs  herself. 

III.  "But,"  say  the  same  objectors,  "sup- 
posing it  be  granted,  that  we  are  naturally  de- 
praved, yet,  if  our  depravity  is  natural,  it  is 
necessary ;  and  we  are  no  more  blamable  for  it 
than  lions  for  their  fierceness,  or  Ethiopians  for 
their  black  complexion." 

1.  Our  objectors  would  not,  I  presume,  be 
understood  to  insinuate,  by  "blamable,"  that 
our  depravity  does  not  render  us  detestable  in 
the  eyes  of  a  holy  God,  or  that  it  is  not  in  itself 
blameworthy.  Do  they  less  dislike  the  com- 
plexion of  the  Ethiopians,  or  less   detest  the 


•PART  IV.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  166 

destructive  rage  of  lions,  because  it  is  natural  to 
tiiem  ?  If  moral  dispositions  ceased  to  be  wor- 
thy of  praise  or  dispraise  as  soon  as  they  are 
rooted,  morally  necessary,  and  in  that  sense 
natural,  what  absurd  consequences  would  follow? 
Sinners  would  become  guiltless  by  arriving  at 
complete  impenitency;  and  God  could  not  be 
praised  for  his  holiness,  nor  Satan  dispraised  for 
his  sinfulness — holiness  being  as  essential  to  God, 
by  the  absolute  perfection  of  his  nature,  as  sin 
is  morally  necessary  to  the  devil,  by  the  uncon- 
querable habit  which  he  has  willfully  contracted, 
and  in  which  he  obstinately  remains. 

2.  Should  they  mean,  that  "we  are  not  an- 
swerable, or  accountable  for  our  depravity,"  I 
reply,  though  I  should  grant — which  I  am  very 
far  from  doing* — that  we  are  no  way  account- 
able for  our  moral  infection,  yet  it  can  not  be 
denied  that  we  are  answerable  for  our  obstinate 
refusal  of  relief,  and  for  the  willful  neglect  of  the 
means  found  out  by  Divine  mercy  for  our  cure. 
Can  we  justly  charge  God  with  either  our  mis- 
fortune or  our  guilt?  Do  not  parents,  by  the 
law  of  nature,  represent  their  unborn  posterity  ? 
If  Adam  ruined  us  by  a  common  transgression, 

*  Milton  introduces  Adam  speaking  thus: 

Ah!  why  should  all  mankind. 
For  one  man's  fault,  thus  guiltless  be  condemn'd, 
If  guiltless?  but  from  me  what  can  proceed, 
.  But  all  corrupt,  both  mind  and  will  depraved, 
Not  to  do  only  but  to  will  the  same 
With  me?     How  can  they  then  acquitted  stand 
In  sight  of  God?    Him  after  all  disputes 
Forced  I  absolve. 


166  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  IV 

has  not  Christ,  the  second  Adam,  provided 
for  us  a  common  salvation  ?  Jude  3 ;  Heb.  ii,  3. 
If,  by  the  offense  of  one,  [Adam,]  judgment 
came  upon  all  men  to  condemnation,  by  the 
righteousness  of  one,  [Christ,]  is  not  the  free 
gift  come  upon  all  men  to  justification  of  life? 
Rom.  V,  18.  And  since  God  has  declared  that 
the  son  shall  not  bear  the  iniquity  of  the  father 
beyond  the  short  period  of  this  transitory  life,  if 
any  suffer  after  death,  is  it  not  entirely  for  their 
own  unbelief  and  peculiar  sins?*  Compare 
John  iii,  18,  19,  and  Mark  xvi,  16.  But  what 
follows  completely  vindicates  our  Creator's 
goodness. 

3.  Do  sin  and  misery  abound  by  our  fall  in 
Adam?  Grace  and  glory  abound  much  more 
by  our  redemption  in  Jesus  Christ,  Rom.  v,  20. 
And  "  it  must  be  owing  to  our  own  perverseness, 
or   our   own   negligence" — says   the  ingenious 

*  Milton    introduces    God    speaking   thus   to   the   Mes- 
^•»        siah: 

Man  shall  not  quite  be  lost,  but  saved  who  will, 
Yet  not  of  will  in  him,  but  grace  in  me 
Freely  vouchsafed:  once  more  I  will  renew 
His  lapsed  powers — ^yet  once  more  he  shall  stand 
On  even  ground  agamst  his  mortal  foe, 
By  me  upheld.     Be  thou  in  Adam's  room 
The  head  of  all  mankind,  though  Adam's  son. 
As  in  him  perish  all  men,  so  in  thee, 
As  from  a  second  root,  shall  be  restored 
As  many  as  are  restored,  without  thee  none. 
His  crimes  make  guilty  all  his  sons;  thy  merit 
Imputed  shall  absolve  them,  who  renounce 
Their  own  both  righteous  and  unrighteous  deeds. 
And  live  in  thee  transplanted,  and  from  thee 
Receive  new  life. 


PART  IV.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  167 

Hervey,  with  great  truth — "  if  we  do  not  levy  a 
tax  upon  our  loss,  and  rise  even  by  our  fall."* 
This  leaves  us  not  the  least  shadow  of  reason 
to  complain  of  the  Divine  proceedings  respect- 
ing us. 

We  may,  then,  conclude  that  a  moral  de- 
pravity, which  comes  upon  us  by  the  willful 
choice  of  a  parent,  in  whom  we  seminally  and 
federally  existed — a  depravity  which  cleaves  to 
us  by  an  obstinate  neglect  of  the  infinitely-pre- 
cious means  provided  to  remove  it — a  depravity 
which  works  now  by  our  own  personal  choice, 
and  to  which  we  daily  give  our  assent  by  the 
free  commission  of  sins  that  are  avoidable, 
leaves  us  not  only  accountable,  but  inexcusable 
before  God. 

IV.  However,  the  advocates  for  the  natural 
purity  of  the  human  race — endeavoring  to  clog 
with  difficulties  what  they  can  not  disprove  to  be 
matter  of  fact — still  assert,  "  As  we  have  our 
souls  immediately  from  God,  if  we  are  born 
sinful,  he  must  either  create  sinful  souls,  which 
can  not  be  supposed  without  impiety,  or  send 
sinless  souls  into  sinful  bodies,  to  be  defiled  by 
the  unhappy  union,  which  is  as  inconsistent  with 
his  goodness  as  his  justice.     Add  to  this,"  say 

*  Creation's  great  superior,  man,  is  thine : 
Thine  is  Redemption.     How  should  this  great  truth 
Raise  man  o'er  man,  and  kindle  seraphs  here! 
Redemption!     'Twas  Creation  more  sublime: 
Redemption !     'Twas  the  labor  of  the  skies: 
Far  more  than  labor — it  was  death  in  heaven. 
A  truth  so  strange !    'Twere  bold  to  think  it  true ; 
If  not  far  bolder  still  to  disbelieve. — YoUNG. 


168  AN  APPEAL  TO  [pART  IV. 

the  objectors,  "that  nothing  can  be  more  unphi- 
losophical  than  to  suppose  that  a  body,  a  mere 
lump  of  organized  matter,  is  able  to  communi- 
cate to  a  spirit  that  moral  pollution  of  which 
itself  is  as  incapable  as  the  murderer's  sword  is 
incapable  of  cruelty." 

This  specious  objection,  which  Dr.  Watts 
acknowledges  to  be  "  the  very  chief  point  of  diffi- 
culty in  all  the  controversies  about  original  sin," 
is  wholly  founded  upon  the  vulgar  notion,  that 
we  have  our  souls  immediately  from  God  by  in- 
fusion ;  it  will  therefore  entirely  fall  to  the  ground, 
if  we  can  prove  that  we  receive  them,  as  well  as 
our  bodies,  by  traduction  from  Adam ;  and  that 
this  is  fact,  appears,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  by  the 
following  arguments: 

1.  We  have  no  ground,  from  Scripture  or 
reason,  to  tliink  that  adulterers  can,  when  they 
please,  put  God  upon  creating  new  souls  to  ani- 
mate the  spurious  fruit  of  their  crime.  On  the 
contrary,  it  is  said  that  God  rested  on  the 
seventh  day  from  all  his  work  of  creation. 

2.  Eve  herself  was  not  created  but  in  Adam; 
God  breathed  no  breath  of  life  into  her,  as  he 
did  into  her  husband,  to  make  him  a  living  soul. 
Therefore,  when  Adam  saw  her,  he  said,  she 
shall  be  called  woman,  because  she — her  whole 
self,  not  her  body  only — was  taken  out  of  man. 
If,  then,  the  soul  of  the  first  woman  sprang  from 
Adam's  soul,  as  her  body  from  his  body,  what 
reason  have  we  to  believe  that  the  souls  of  her 
posterity  are  immediately  infused,  as  Adam's 
was  when  God  created  him  ? 


PART  IV.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  169 

3.  All  agree  that,  under  God,  we  receive  life 
from  our  parents ;  and  if  life,  then  certainly  our 
soul,  which  is  the  principle  of  life. 

4.  Other  animals  have  power  to  propagate 
their  own  species  after  its  kind ;  they  can  gen- 
erate animated  bodies.  Why  should  man  be 
but  half  a  father  ?  When  did  God  stint  him  to 
propagate  the  mere  shell  of  his  person,  the  body 
without  the  soul  ?  Was  it  when  he  blessed  him, 
and  said.  Be  fruitful  and  multiply  ?  When  he 
spoke  thus,  did  he  not  address  himself  to  the 
soul,  as  well  as  to  the  body?  Can  the  body, 
alone,  either  understand  or  execute  a  command  ? 
Is  it  not,  on  the  contrary,  highly  reasonable  to 
conclude,  that  by  virtue  of  the  Divine  appoint- 
ment and  blessing,  the  whole  man  can  be  fruit- 
ful and  multiply,  and  the  soul,  under  proper 
circumstances,  can  generate  a  soul,  as  a  thought 
begets  a  thought;  and  can  kindle  the  flame  of 
life,  as  one  taper  lights  another,  without  weaken- 
ing its  immortal  substance,  any  more  than  God 
the  Father — if  I  may  be  allowed  the  compari- 
son— impairs  the  Divine  essence  by  the  eternal 
generation  of  his  only-begotten  Son? 

5.  Does  not  matter  of  fact  corroborate  the 
preceding  argument?  A  sprightly  race-horse 
generally  begets  a  mettlesome  colt;  while  a 
heavy  cart-horse  begets  a  colt  that  bears  the 
stamp  of  its  sire's  dullness.  And  is  it  not  so 
with  mankind  in  general  ?  The  children  of  the 
Hottentots  and  Esquimaux  are  commonly  as 
stupid,  while  those  of  the  English  and  French 
are  usually  as  sharp,  as   their  parents.     You 


1^0  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  IV. 

seldom  see  a  wit  springing  from  two  half-witted 
people,  or  a  fool  descended  from  very  sensible 
parents.  The  children  of  men  of  genius  are 
frequently  as  remarkable  for  some  branch  of 
hereditary  genius,  as  those  of  blockheads  for 
their  native  stupidity.  Nothing  is  more  com- 
mon, than  to  see  very  passionate  and  flighty 
parents  have  very  passionate  and  flighty  chil- 
dren. And  I  have  a  hundred  times  discovered, 
not  only  the  features,  look,  and  complexion,  of 
a  father  and  mother  in  the  child's  face,  but  seen 
a  congenial  soul  looking  out — if  I  may  so  speak — 
at  those  windows  of  the  body  which  we  call  the 
eyes.  Hence  I  conclude  that  the  advice  fre- 
quently given  to  those  who  are  about  to  choose 
a  companion  for  life,  "  Take  care  of  the  breed," 
is  not  absolutely  without  foundation,  although 
some  lay  too  much  stress  upon  it,  forgetting  that 
a  thousand  unknown  accidents  may  form  excep- 
tions to  the  general  rule,  and  not  considering  that 
the  peculiarity  of  the  father's  breed  may  be  hap- 
pily corrected  by  that  of  the  mother,  and  vice 
versa ;  and  that  as  the  grace  of  God,  yielded  to, 
may  sweeten  the  worst  temper,  so  sin,  persisted 
in,  may  sour  the  best. 

6.  Again :  Moses  informs  us,  that  fallen  Adam 
begat  a  son  in  his  own  likeness  and  after  his 
image ;  but  had  he  generated  a  body  without  a 
soul,  he  would  not  have  begotten  a  son  in  his  own 
hkeness,  since  he  was  not  a  mere  mortal  body, 
but  a  fallen  embodied  spirit.  Compare  Gen.  v,  3, 
with  xlvi,  26. 

"  But  upon  this  scheme,"  will  objectors  say, 


PART  IV.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  Ill 

"if  Adam  was  converted  when  he  begat  a  son, 
he  begat  a  converted  soul,"  This  does  by  no 
means  follow ;  for  if  he  was  born  of  God  after 
his  fall,  it  was  by  grace  through  faith,  and  not 
by  nature  through  generation;  he  could  not, 
therefore,  communicate  his  spiritual  regeneration 
by  natural  generation,  any  more  than  a  great 
scholar  can  propagate  his  learning  together  with 
his  species. 

Should  it  be  again  objected,  that  the  soul  is 
not  generated,  because  the  Scriptures  declare, 
•'The  Lord  is  the  Father  of  the  spirits  of  all 
flesh,  and  the  spirit  returns  to  God  who  gave  it," 
I  answer,  it  is  also  written,  that  Job  and  David 
were  "fearfully  made  and  fashioned  by  the 
hands  of  God  in  the  womb ;"  that  he  "  formed 
Jeremiah  in  the  belly;"  and  that  "we  are  the 
offspring  of  him  who  made  of  one  blood  all  na- 
tions of  men."  Now,  if  the  latter  Scriptures  do 
not  exclude  the  interposition  of  parents  in  the 
formation  of  their  children's  bodies,  by  what 
rule  of  criticism  or  divinity  can  we  prove,  that 
the  former  exclude  that  interposition  in  the  pro- 
duction of  their  souls? 

Nor  can  materialists,  who  have  no  ideas  of 
generation,  but  such  as  are  gross  and  carnal  like 
their  own  system,  with  any  shadow  of  reason 
infer,  that  "if  the  soul  is  generated  with  the 
body,  it  will  also  perish  with  it ;"  for  dissolution  is 
so  far  from  being  a  necessary  consequence  of  the 
spiritual  generation  of  souls,  that  it  would  not  so 
much  as  have  followed  the  generation  of  our 
btKiies,  if  Adam  had  not  brought  "  sin  into  the 


172  AN  APPEAL  TO  [pART  IV. 

Avorld,  and  death  by  sin."  Again:  if  wheat,  a 
material  seed  which  grows  out  of  the  same 
earthly  clod  with  the  chaff  that  incloses  it,  can 
subsist  unimpaired,  when  that  mean  cover  is 
destroyed,  how  much  more  can  the  soul — that 
spiritual,  vital,  heavenly  power,  which  is  of  a 
nature  so  vastly  superior  to  the  body  in  which  it 
is  confined^-continue  to  exist,  when  flesh  and 
blood  are  returned  to  their  native  dust ! 

Should  some  persons  reject  what  I  say  of  the 
traduction  of  souls,  in  order  to  illustrate  the 
derivation  of  original  sin,  and  should  they  say 
that  they  have  no  more  idea  of  the  generation 
than  honest  Nicodemus  had  of  the  regeneration 
of  a  spirit,  I  beg  leave  to  observe  two  things : 

First:  If  such  objectors  are  converted,  they 
will  not  deny  the  regeneration  of  souls  by  the 
Spirit  of  God,  since  they  experienced  it,  and  our 
Lord  speaks  of  it  as  a  blessed  reality,  even  while 
he  represents  it  as  a  mystery  unknown  as  to  the 
manner  of  it,  John  iii,  8-13.  Now,  if  pious 
souls  have  been  regenerated  from  the  beginning 
of  the  world,  without  exactly  knowing  how,  is  it 
reasonable  to  deny  that  souls  are  generated, 
merely  because  we  can  not  exactly  account  for 
the  manner  in  which  that  wonder  tekes  place  ? 

Second :  Should  my  objectors  be  versed  in 
natural  philosophy,  they  need  not  be  told,  that 
even  the  kind  of  generation  which  they  allow  is 
as  much  a  mystery  to  man,  as  the  movement  of 
a  watch  is  to  a  child  that  just  sees  the  case  and 
the  glass.  If  they  will  not  believe  me,  let  them 
believe  him  who  "gave  his  heart  to  search  out 


PART  rv.]  MATTER  OF  FACT,  iTS 

by  wisdom  concerning  all  things  that  are  done 
under  heaven ;"  and  who,  touching  upon  our 
question,  says,  "As  thou  knowest  not  what  is 
the  way  of  the  Spirit,  nor  how  the  bones  do 
grow  in  the  womb  of  her  that  is  with  child; 
even  so  thou  knowest  not  the  works  of  God,  who 
maketh  all,"  Eccles.  xi,  5. 

For  my  part,  I  do  not  see  why  the  same  al- 
mighty Preserver  of  men,  who— as  St.  Paul  tells 
us — "  made  of  one  blood  the  bodies  of  all  nations 
of  men,"  might  not,  of  one  active  thought  and 
ardent  desire,  have  made  the  souls  of  all  nations 
of  men  also.  Have  not  thought  and  desire  as 
great  affinity  to  the  nature  of  the  soul  as  blood 
has  to  that  of  the  body?  And,  consequently, 
are  not  our  ideas  of  the  traduction  of  the  soul 
as  clear  as  those  which  we  can  form  of  the  gen- 
eration of  the  body  ? 

Having  dwelt  so  long  upon  the  manner  in 
which  mankind  naturally  propagate  original  cor- 
ruption together  with  their  whole  species,  I  hope 
I  may  reasonably  resume  the  conclusion  of  my 
argument,  and  affirm,  that  if  Adam  corrupted 
the  fountain  of  human  nature  in  himself,  we,  the 
streams,  can  not  but  be  naturally  corrupted. 

THIRTY-SECOND    ARGUMENT. 

God  being  a  spirit,  reason  and  revelation 
jointly  inform  us,  that  his  law  is  spiritual,  and 
extends  to  our  thoughts  and  tempers,  as  well  as 
to  our  words  and  actions.  At  all  times,  and  in 
all  places,  it  forbids  every  thing  that  is  sinful,  or 
has  the  least  tendencv  to  sin;  it  commands  all 


174  AN  APPEAL  TO  [p ART  IV. 

that  is  excellent,  and  enjoins  it  to  be  done  in  the 
utmost  perfection  of  our  dispensation. 

Therefore,  if  we  have  not  always  trusted  and 
delighted  in  God  more  than  in  all  things  and 
persons;  if  for  one  instant  we  have  loved  or 
feared  the  creature  more  than  the  Creator,  we 
have  had  another  god  besides  the  Lord,  Ool.  iii, 
6;  Phil,  iii,  19.  Have  we  once  omitted  to 
adore  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth  inwardly,  or  at 
any  time  worshiped  him  without  becoming  ven- 
eration outwardly,  we  have  transgressed  as  if 
we  had  bowed  to  a  graven  image,  John  iv,  24. 
Though  perjury  and  imprecations  should  never 
have  defiled  our  lips,  yet,  if  ever  we  mentioned 
God's  tremendous  name  thoughtlessly,  or  irrev- 
erently, in  prayer,  reading,  or  conversation,  we 
have  taken  it  in  vain,  and  the  Searcher  of  hearts 
will  not  hold  us  guiltless,  Phil,  ii,  10.  And  if 
it  has  not  been  our  constant  practice  and  delight 
to  enter  his  courts  with  praise,  and  spend  the 
whole  Sabbath  in  his  blessed  service,  we  have 
polluted  that  sacred  day,  and  the  guilt  of  pro- 
faneness  may  justly  be  charged  upon  us,  Isaiah 
Iviii,  13. 

Did  we  ever  show  any  disrespect  to  our  su- 
periors, or  unkindness  to  our  equals  and  infe- 
riors, we  have  violated  the  precept  that  com- 
mands us  to  honor  all  men,  and  be  punctual  in 
the  discharge  of  all  social  and  relative  duties,  1 
Pet.  ii,  17.  Did  we  ever  weaken  our  constitu- 
tion by  excess,  strike  our  neighbor  in  anger,  or 
wound  his  character  with  an  injurious  word,  or 
only  suffer  hatred  to  rise  in  our  breast  against 


PART  IV.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  175 

him,  we  have  committed  a  species  of  murder; 
for,  "whosoever  shall  say  to  his  brother,  Thou 
fool,  shall  be  in  danger  of  hell  fire ;"  and  "  who- 
soever hateth  his  brother  is  a  murderer,"  Matt. 
V,  22,  1  John  ii,  15.  Are  we  "the  friends  of 
the  world,"  an  apostle  brands  us  with  the  name 
of  adulterers,  because  we  are  false  to  our  heav- 
enly bridegroom,  James  iv,  4.  And  if  we  have 
only  "looked  on  a  woman  to  lust  after  her," 
Christ  declares  that  we  "have  committed  adul- 
tery with  her  already  in  our  heart,"  Matt,  v,  28. 
Have  we  overcharged  our  customers,  exacted 
upon  any  one  in  our  bargains,  insisted  on  a  full 
salary  for  work  done  by  halves,  defrauded  the 
king  of  any  part  of  his  taxes,  or  taken  advan- 
tage of  the  necessity  and  ignorance  of  others  to 
get  by  their  loss,  we  swell  the  numerous  tribe 
of  reputable  thieves  and  genteel  robbers,  Matt. 
xxii,  21.  Neglecting  to  keep  our  word  and 
baptismal  vow,  or  speaking  an  untruth,  is  "  bear- 
ing false  witness  against  our  neighbor,"  our- 
selves, or  Christ,  who  styles  himself  "the 
truth,"  Rev.  xxii,  15.  And  giving  place  to  a 
fretful,  discontented  thought,  or  an  irregular,  en- 
vious desire,  is  a  breach  of  that  spiritual  precept, 
which  made  St.  Paul  say,  "I  liad  not  known 
lust,"  or  a  wrong  desire  to  be  sin,  "except  the 
law  had  said.  Thou  shalt  not  covet,"  Romans 
vii,  7. 

Such  being  the  extreme  spirituality  of  the  law, 
who  can  plead  that  he  never  was  guilty  of  break- 
ing one,  or  even  all  of  the  ten  commandments? 

And  if  we  have  broken  them  all,  either  in 


1Y6  AK  APPEAL  TO  [p ART  IV. 

their  literal  or  spiritual  meaning,  and  are  threat- 
ened for  every  transgression  with  a  curse  suita- 
ble to  the  Lawgiver's  infinite  majesty,  who  can 
conceive  the  greatness  of  our  guilt  and  danger  ? 
Till  we  find  a  sanctuary  under  the  shadow  of  a 
Savior's  wings,  are  we  not  as  liable  to  the  strokes 
of  divine  vengeance  as  a  felon,  guilty  of  break- 
ing all  the  statutes  of  his  country,  is  liable  to 
the  penalty  of  human  laws? 

If  this  is  not  the  case,  there  is  no  justice  in 
the  court  of  heaven,  and  the  laws  given  with  so 
much  terror  from  the  Almighty's  throne,  like  the 
statutes  of  children,  or  the  Pope's  bulls,  are  only 
"bruta  fulmina" — words  without  effect,  and 
thunders  without  lightnings. 

Some  indeed  flatter  themselves  that  "  the  law, 
since  the  Gospel  dispensation,  abates  much  of 
its  demands  of  perfect  love."  But  their  hope  is 
equally  unsupported  by  reason  and  Scripture. 
The  law  is  the  eternal  rule  of  right,  the  moral 
picture  of  the  God  of  holiness  and  love.  It  can 
no  more  vary  than  its  eternal,  unchangeable 
Original.  The  Lord  "  will  not  alter  the  thing 
that  has  gone  out  of  his  mouth."  He  must 
cease  to  be  what  he  is,  before  his  law  can  lose 
its  power  to  bind  either  men  or  angels ;  and  all 
creatures  shall  break  sooner  than  it  shall  bend ; 
for  if  it  commands  us  only  to  "  love  God  with 
all  our  heart,  and  our  neighbor  as  ourselves," 
what  just  abatement  can  be  made  in  so  equita- 
ble a  precept  ?  Therefore,  man  who  breaks  the 
righteous  law  of  God  as  naturally  as  he  breathes, 
is  and  must  continue  under  its  fearful  curse,  till 


PART  IV.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  l77 

he  has  secured  the  pardon  and  help  offered  him 
in  the  Gospel. 

THIRTY-THIRD    ARGUMENT. 

Nor  is  the  Gospel  itself  without  its  threaten- 
ings ;  for  if  the  Lord,  on  the  one  hand,  "  opens 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  all  believers,"  he  de- 
clares, on  the  other,  that  "they  all  shall  be 
damned  who  believe  not  the  truth,"  when  it  is 
proposed  to  them  with  sufficient  evidence ;  and 
that  "he  who  believeth  not  is  condemned  already, 
because  he  hath  not  believed  on  the  name  of  the 
only-begotten  Son  of  God,"  2  Thess.  ii,  12; 
John  iii,  18.  From  these  awful  declarations  I 
draw  the  following  argument : 

If  faith  is  so  essential  a  virtue,  how  depraved 
and  wretched  is  man  who  is  so  excessively  slow 
of  heart  to  believe  the  things  that  concern  his 
salvation!  Matter  of  fact  daily  proves  that  we 
readily  admit  the  evidence  of  men,  while  we 
peremptorily  reject  the  testimony  of  God.  Com- 
modore Byron's  extraordinary  account  of  the 
giants  in  Patagonia  is,  or  was,  every-where  re- 
ceived; but  that  of  Jesus  Christ,  concerning 
those  who  "  walk  in  the  broad  way  to  destruc- 
tion," is  and  has  always  been  too  generally  dis- 
regarded, Matt,  vii,  13. 

On  reading  in  a  newspaper  an  anonymous  let- 
ter from  Naples,  we  believe  that  rivers  of  liquid 
fire  flow  from  the  convulsed  bowels  of  a  moun- 
tain, and  form  burning  lakes  in  the  adjacent 
plains :  but  if  we  read  in  the  Scripture  that 
Tophet,  the  burning  lake,  is  prepared  of  old  for 
12 


178  AH  APPEAL  TO  [p ART  IV. 

the  impenitent,  we  beg  leave  to  withhold  our 
assent;  and,  unless  Divine  grace  prevents,  we 
must  fall  in,  and  feel,  before  we  will  assent  and 
believe,  Isa.  xxx,  33. 

Who  that  has  seen  a  map  of  Africa  ever 
doubted  whether  there  is  such  a  kingdom  as 
that  of  Morocco,  though  he  never  saw  it,  or  any 
of  its  natives?  But  who  that  has  perused  the 
Gospel,  never  doubted  whether  "the  kingdom 
of  heaven  within  us,"  or  that  state  of  "righteous- 
ness, peace,  and  joy,  in  the  Holy  Ghost,"  which 
God  opens  to  believers  upon  earth,  is  not  a  mere 
imagination?  though  Christ  himself  invites  us 
to  it,  and  many  pious  persons  not  only  testify 
they  enjoy  it,  but  actually  show  its  blessed 
fruits,  in  heavenly  tempers,  a  blameless  life,  a 
triumphant  death,  Mark  i,  14;  Luke  xvii,  21; 
Rom.  xiv,  1 Y ;  Rev.  i,  6. 

With  what- readiness  do  we  depend  upon  an 
honest  man's  promise,  especially  if  it  is  reduced 
into  a  bond  ?  But  with  what  reluctance  do  we 
rely  on  the  "  many  great  and  precious  promises  " 
of  God,  "  confirmed  by  an  oath,"  delivered  be- 
fore the  most  unexceptionable  witnesses,  and 
sealed  by  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ?  2  Pet.  i, 
4;  2  Cor.  i,  20;  Heb.  vi,  17. 

And  ye  numerous  tribes  of  patients,  how  do 
ye  shame  those  who  call  themselves  Christians! 
So  entire  is  the  trust  which  you  repose  upon  a 
physician's  advice,  whom  perhaps  you  have  seen 
but  once,  that  you  immediately  abstain  from  your 
pleasant  food,  and  regularly  take  medicines, 
which,  for  what  you  know,  may  be  as  injurious 


PART  IV.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  179 

to  your  stomach  as  they  are  offensive  to  your 
palate;  but  we  who  profess  Christianity  gener- 
ally quarrel  with  Christ's  prescriptions;  and  if 
we  do  not  understand  the  nature  of  a  remedy 
which  he  recommends,  we  think  this  a  sufficient 
reason  for  refusing  it.  From  Christ  only,  if  we 
can  help  it,  we  will  take  nothing  upon  trust. 

One  false  witness  is  often  sufficient  to  make 
us  believe  that  a  neighbor  vows  to  do  us  an 
injury;  but  twenty  ministers  of  Jesus  can  not 
persuade  us  God  hath  sworn  in  his  wrath,  that, 
if  we  die  in  our  sins,  we  shall  not  enter  into  his 
rest,  Psa.  xcv,  1 1 ,  or  that,  if  we  come  to  him 
for  pardon  and  life,  he  will  in  no  wise  cast  us  out, 
John  vi,  37.  The  most  defamatory  and  improb- 
able reports  spread  with  uncommon  swiftness, 
and  pass  for  matter  of  fact ;  but  when  St.  Paul 
testifies,  that  if  any  man  hath  not  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  he  is  none  of  his,  Rom.  viii,  9,  who  be- 
lieves his  testimony  ?  Does  not  the  same  mind 
that  was  open  to  scandalous  lies,  prove  shut 
against  such  a  revealed  truth? 

Isaiah  asks,  "  Who  hath  believed  our  report  ?" 
and  Jesus  says,  "  When  the  Son  of  man  cometh, 
shall  he  find  faith  upon  the  earth?"  Alas  !  there 
would  have  been  no  room  for  these  plaintive 
questions,  if  the  word  of  God  had  not  been  pro- 
posed to  our  faith ;  for  the  most  groundless  and 
absurd  assertions  of  men  find  multitudes  of  be- 
lievers. We  see  daily,  that  an  idle  rumor  about 
a  peace  or  a  war  meets  with  such  credit  as  to 
raise  or  sink  the  stocks  in  a  few  hours. 
'    It  is  evident  that  man  has  a  foolish  and  evil 


180  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PABT  IV. 

heart  of  unbelief,  ready  to  strain  out  a  gnat  in 
divine  revelation,  while  he  greedily  swallows 
up  the  camel  of  human  imposture.  Now,  if  it 
is  part  of  the  Gospel  which  Chiist  commands  his 
ministers  to  preach  to  every  creature,  that  he 
who  believeth  not  shall  be  damned,  Mark  xvi, 
16,  how  great  is  the  depravity,  and  how  immi- 
nent the  danger  of  fallen  man,  who  has  such  a 
strong  propensity  to  so  destructive,  so  damnable 
a  sin  as  unbelief? 

THIRTY-FOURTH    ARGUMENT. 

But  let  us  come  still  nearer  to  the  point.  If 
we  are  not  by  nature  conceived  in  sin,  and  chil- 
dren of  wrath,  milhons  of  infants,  who  die  with- 
out actual  sin,  have  no  need  of  the  blood  of 
Christ  to  wash  their  robes,  nor  his  Spirit  to  pu- 
rify their  hearts.  The  incarnation  of  the  eter- 
nal Word,  and  the  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
are  as  unnecessary  to  them  as  the  visits  of  a 
physician,  and  his  remedies,  to  persons  in  perfect 
health.  Their  spotless  innocency  is  a  sufficient 
passport  for  heaven;  baptism  is  ridiculous,  and 
the  Christian  religion  absurd,  in  their  case. 

Nor  does  it  appear,  why  it  might  not  be  as 
absurd  with  regard  to  the  rest  of  mankind,  did 
they  but  act  their  part  a  little  better;  for  if  we 
are  naturally  innocent,  we  have  a  natural  power 
to  remain  so ;  and  by  a  proper  use  of  it,  we  may 
avoid  standing  in  need  of  the  salvation  procured 
by  Christ  for  the  lost. 

Nay,  if  innocent  nature,  carefully  improved, 
may  be  the  way  to  eternal  life,  it  is  certainly  the 


PART  rV.]  MATTER  OF  FACT,  181 

readiest  way,  and  the  Son  of  God  speaks  like 
the  grand  deceiver  of  mankind,  when  he  says, 
"  1  am  the  way ;  no  man  cometh  to  the  Father, 
but  by  me."  Christians,  let  self-conceited  Deists 
entertain  the  thought,  but  harbor  it  not  a  mo- 
ment; in  you  it  would  be  highly  blasphemous. 

THIRTY-FIFTH    ARGUMENT. 

And  that  you  may  detest  it  the  more,  consider 
farther  that  all  the  capital  doctrines  of  Christian- 
ity are  built  upon  that  fundamental  article  of  our 
depravity  and  danger.  If  all  flesh  hath  not  cor- 
rupted its  way,  how  severe  are  those  words  of 
Christ,  "  Except  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  perish ;" 
and,  "Except  ye  be  converted,  ye  shall  not  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven!"  If  all  are  not 
carnal  and  earthly  by  their  first  birth,  how  absurd 
is  what  he  said  to  Nicodemus :  "  Except  a  man 
be  born  again,  he  can  not  see  the  kingdom  of 
heaven !"  If  there  is  any  spiritual  health  in  us 
by  nature,  how  notoriously  false  are  these  asser- 
tions! All  our  sufficiency  is  of  God — With- 
out me  ye  can  do  nothing.  If  every  natural 
man  is  not  the  reverse  of  the  holiness  in  which 
Adam  was  created,  how  irrational  these  and  the 
like  Scriptures :  If  any  man  is  in  Christ,  he  is  a 
new  creature;  In  Christ  Jesus  neither  circum- 
cision availeth  any  thing,  nor  uncircumcision, 
but  a  new  creature.  To  conclude :  if  mankind  are 
not  universally  corrupt,  guilty,  and  condemned, 
how  unnecessarily  alarming  is  this  declaration : 
He  that  believeth  not  on  the  Son  of  God  is 
condemned  already ;  the  wrath  of  God  abideth 


182  AN  APPEAL  TO  [pART  IV. 

on  him :  and  if  we  are  not  foolish,  unrighteous, 
unholy,  and  enslaved  to  sin,  why  is  Christ  made 
to  us  of  God,  wisdom,  righteousness,  sancti- 
fication,  and  redemption?  Take  away,  then, 
the  doctrine  of  the  fall,  and  the  tower  of  evan- 
gelical truth,  built  by  Jesus  Christ,  is  no  more 
founded  on  a  rock,  but  upon  the  sand :  or,  rather, 
the  stately  fabric  is  instantly  thrown  down,  and 
leaves  no  ruins  behind  it  but  the  dry  morality 
of  Epictetus,  covered  with  the  rubbish  of  the 
wildest  metaphors,  and  buried  in  the  most  im- 
pertinent ceremonies. 

THIRTY-SIXTH  ARGUMENT. 

One  more  absurdity  still  remains.  If  man  is 
not  in  the  most  imminent  danger  of  destruction, 
nothing  can  be  more  extravagant  than  the  great 
article  of  the  Christian  faith,  thus  expressed  in 
the  Nicene  creed :  "  Jesus  Christ,  very  God  of 
very  God,  by  whom  all  things  were  made,  for 
us  men,  and  for  our  salvation,  came  down  from 
heaven,  was  made  man,  and  was  crucified  for 

Is  it  not  astonishing  that  there  should  be  peo- 
ple so  infatuated  as  to  join  every  Lord's  day  in 
this  solemn  confession,  and  to  deny,  the  other 
six,  the  horrible  danger  to  which  they  are  ex- 
posed, till  they  have  an  interest  in  Christ?  Is 
not  the  least  grain  of  common  sense  sufficient 
to  make  an  attentive  person  see,  that  if  He,  by 
whom  all  things  were  made,  came  from  heaven 
for  our  salvation — if  he  was  made  man  that  he 
might  suflfer,  and  be  crucified  for  us — he  saw  us 


PAKT  IV.]       MATTER  OF  FACT.  183 

guilty,  condemned,  lost,  and  obnoxious  to  the 
damnation  which  we  continually  deprecate  in 
the  litany?  Shall  we  charge  the  Son  of  God, 
in  whom  are  hid  all  the  treasures  of  divine  wis- 
dom, with  the  unparalleled  folly  of  coming  from 
heaven  to  atone  for  innocent  creatures;  to  re- 
prieve persons  uncondemned;  to  redeem  a  race 
of  free  men ;  to  deliver  from  the  curse  a  people 
not  accursed ;  to  hang  by  exquisitely-dolorous 
wounds,  made  in  his  sacred  hands  and  feet,  on 
a  tree  more  ignominious  than  the  gallows,  for 
honest  men,  and  very  good  sort  of  people ;  and 
to  expire  under  the  sense  of  the  wrath  of  Heaven 
that  he  might  save  from  hell  people  in  no  danger 
of  going  there? 

Reader,  is  it  possible  to  entertain  for  a  mo- 
ment these  wild  notions,  without  offering  the 
utmost  indignity  to  the  Son  of  God,  and  the 
greatest  violence  to  common  sense?  And  does 
not  reason  cry,  as  with  the  sound  of  a  thousand 
trumpets,  "  If  our  Creator  could  not  save  us 
consistently  with  his  glorious  attributes,  but  by 
becoming  incarnate,  passing  through  the  deepest 
scenes  of  humiliation  and  temptation,  distress  and 
want,  for  thirty-three  years,  and  undergoing,  at 
last,  the  most  shameful,  painful,  and  accursed 
death,  in  our  place,  our  wickedness  must  be 
desperate,  our  sins  execrable,  our  guilt  black  as 
the  shadow  of  death,  and  our  danger  dreadful 
as  the  gloom  and  torments  of  hell?" 

"Shocking  doctrine!"  says  the  self-conceited 
moralist,  as  he  rises  from  his  chair  full  of  in- 
dignation, and  ready  to  throw  aside  the  argu- 


184  AN  APPEAL  TO  [pART  IV. 

ments  he  can  not  answer.  Reader,  if  you  are 
the  man,  remember  that  this  is  an  appeal  to 
reason,  and  not  to  passion — to  matter  of  fact, 
and  not  to  your  vitiated  taste  for  pleasing  error. 
You  may  cry  out  at  the  sight  of  a  shroud,  a 
coffin,  a  grave,  "Shocking  objects!"  But  your 
loudest  exclamations  will  not  lessen  the  awful 
reality,  by  which  many  have  happily  been 
shocked  into  a  timely  consideration  of,  and  prep- 
aration for,  approaching  death. 

"But  this  doctrine,"  you  still  urge,  "drives 
people  to  despair."  Yes,  to  a  despair  of  being 
saved  by  their  own  merits  and  righteousness  ; 
■ind  this  is  as  reasonaWe  in  a  sinner  who  comes 
to  the  Savior  as  despairing  to  swim  across  the 
sea  is  rational  in  a  passenger  that  takes  ship. 
Our  Church,  far  from  speaking  against  it,  says, 
that  "sinners  should  be  dismayed  at  God's 
rightful  justice,  and  should  despair  indeed,  as 
touching  any  hope  that  may  be  in  themselves." 
Hom.  On  falling  from  God,  second  part. 

A  just  despair  of  ourselves  is  widely  different 
from  a  despair  of  God's  mercy,  and  Christ's 
willingness  to  save  the  chief  of  sinners,  who 
flies  to  him  for  refuge.  This  horrible  sin,  this 
black  crime  of  Judas,  springs  rather  from  a  sul- 
len, obstinate  rejection  of-  the  remedy,  than,  as 
some  vainly  suppose,  from  a  clear  knowledge 
of  the  disease.  And  that  none  may  commit  it, 
Christ's  ministers  take  particular  care  not  to 
preach  the  law  without  the  Gospel,  and  the  fall 
without  the  recovery:  no  sooner  have  they 
opened  the  wound  of  sin,  festering  in  the  sin- 


PART  IV.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  185 

ner's  conscience,  than  they  pour  in  the  balm  of 
Divine  promises,  and  make  gracious  offers  of  a 
free  pardon  and  full  salvation  by  the  compas- 
sionate Redeemer,  who  came  to  justify  the  un- 
godly, and  to  save  the  lost. 

And,  indeed,  those  only  who  see  their  sin 
and  misery,  will  cordially  embrace  the  Gospel ; 
for  common  sense  dictates,  that  none  care  for 
the  king's  mercy  but  those  who  know  they  are 
guilty,  condemned  criminals.  How  excessively 
unreasonable  it  is  then  to  object,  that  the  preach- 
ing of  man's  corrupt  and  lost  estate  drives  peo- 
ple to  despair  of  divine  mercy,  when  it  is  abso- 
lutely the  only  means  of  showing  them  their 
need  of  it,  and  making  them  gladly  accept  it 
upon  God's  own  terms. 

Leaving,  therefore,  that  trite  objection  to  the 
unthinking  vulgar,  once  more,  judicious  reader, 
summon  all  your  rational  powers,  and,  after  im- 
ploring help  from  on  high  to  use  them  aright, 
say,  whether  these  last  arguments  do  not  prove 
that  no  Christian  can  deny  the  complete  fall  of 
mankind,  without  renouncing  the  capital  doc- 
trines of  his  own  religion — overturning  the  very 
foundation  of  the  Gospel,  which  he  professes  to 
receive — staining  the  glory  of  the  Redeemer, 
whom  he  pretends  to  honor,  and  impiously 
taking  from  his  crown,  wisdom,  truth,  and 
charity,  the  three  jewels  that  are  its  brightest 
ornaments.  Sum  up,  then,  all  that  has  been 
advanced  concerning  the  afflictive  dealings  of 
God's  providence  with  mankind,  and  the  base 
conduct,  or  wicked  temper  of  mankind  toward 


386  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  V. 

God,  one  another,  and  themselves — declare  if 
all  the  arguments  laid  before  you,  and  cleared 
from  the  thickest  clouds  of  objections  that  might 
obscure  them,  do  not  cast  more  light  upon  the 
black  subject  of  our  depravity  than  is  sufficient 
to  show  that  it  is  a  melancholy  truth — and 
finally  pronounce,  whether  the  doctrine  of  our 
corrupt  and  lost  estate,  stated  in  the  words  of 
the  sacred  writers,  and  of  our  pious  reformers, 
is  not  rationally  demonstrated  and  established 
upon  the  firmest  basis  in  the  world — matter  of 
fact  and  the  dictates  of  common  sense. 


FIFTH  PART. 

When  a  doctrine  has  been  clearly  demon- 
strated, the  truths  that  necessarily  spring  from 
it  can  not  reasonably  be  rejected.  Let,  then, 
common  sense  decide,  whether  the  following 
consequences  do  not  necessarily  result  from  the 
doctrine  of  the  fall,  established  in  the  preceding 
parts  of  this  treatise. 

Inference  1.  If  we  are  by  nature  in  a  cor- 
rupt and  lost  estate,  the  grand  business  of  min- 
isters is  to  rouse  our  drowsy  consciences,  and 
warn  us  of  our  imminent  danger.  It  behooves 
them  to  cry  aloud  and  spare  not,  to  lift  up  their 
voice  like  a  trumpet,  and  show  us  our  trans- 
gressions and  our  sins.  Nor  are  they  to  desist 
from  this  unpleasing  part  of  their  office  till  we 


PART  v.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  187 

awake  to  righteousness,  and  lay  hold  on  the 
hope  set  before  us. 

If  preachers,  under  pretense  of  peace  and 
good-nature,  let  the  wound  fester  in  the  con- 
science of  their  hearers,  to  avoid  the  thankless 
office  of  probing  it  to  the  bottom — if,  for  fear 
of  giving  them  pain  by  a  timely  amputation, 
they  let  them  die  of  a  mortification — or  if  they 
heal  the  hurt  of  the  daughter  of  God's  people 
slightly,  saying,  Peace!  Peace!  when  there  is 
no  peace — they  imitate  those  sycophants  of  old, 
who,  for  fear  of  displeasing  the  rich,  and  offend- 
ing the  great,  preached  smooth  things,  and 
prophesied  deceit. 

This  cruel  gentleness,  this  soft  barbarity,  is  at- 
tended with  the  most  pernicious  consequences, 
and  will  deservedly  meet  with  the  most  dread- 
ful punishment.  Give  sinners  warning  from 
me,  says  the  Lord  to  every  minister;  when  I 
say  to  the  wicked,  the  unconverted.  Thou  shalt 
surely  die,  and  thou  givest  him  not  warning,  he 
shall  die  in  his  iniquity,  in  his  unconverted  state ; 
but  his  blood  will  I  require  at  thy  hand.  See 
Matt,  xviii,  3;  Ezek.  iii,  18,  and  xiii,  10. 

Inference  2.  If  we  are  naturally  depraved 
and  condemned  creatures,  self-righteousness 
and  pride  are  the  most  absurd  and  monstrous 
of  all  our  sins.  The  deepest  repentance,  and 
profoundest  humility,  become  us.  To  neglect 
them,  is  to  stumble  at  the  very  threshold  of  true 
religion;  and  to  ridicule  them  is  to  pour  con- 
tempt upon  reason,  revelation,  and  the  first 
operations  of  divine  grace  on  a  sinner's  heart. 


i9i  AN.  APPEAL  TO  [PABT  V. 

Inference  3.  If  the  corruption  of  mankind 
is  universal,  inveterate,  and  amazingly  powerful, 
no  mere  creature  can  deliver  them  from  it. 
They  must  remain  unrestored,  or  they  must 
have  an  almighty,  omniscient,  omnipresent,  un- 
wearied, infinitely-patient  Savior,  willing,  day 
and  night,  to  attend  to  the  wants  and  public  or 
secret  applications  of  millions  of  wretched  souls, 
and  able  to  give  them  immediate  assistance 
throughout  the  world,  in  all  their  various  trials, 
temptations,  and  the  conflicts  both  in  life  and  in 
death.  Is  the  most  exalted  creature  sufficient 
for  these  things? 

When  such  a  vast  body  as  mankind,  spread 
over  all  the  earth  for  thousands  of  years,  made 
up  of  numerous  nations,  all  of  which  consist  of 
multitudes  of  individuals,  each  of  whom  has  the 
springs  of  all  his  faculties  and  powers  enfeebled, 
disordered,  or  broken — when  such  an  immense 
body  as  this  is  to  be  restored  to  the  image  of 
the  infinitely-holy,  glorious,  and  blessed  God, 
common  sense  dictates  that  the  amazing  task 
can  be  performed  by  no  other  than  the  original 
Artist,  the  great  Searcher  of  hearts,  the  om- 
nipotent Creator  of  mankind. 

Hence  it  appears,  that,  notwithstanding  the 
cavils  of  Arius,  the  Savior  is  God  over  all 
blessed  for  ever;  all  things  were  made  by  him, 
he  upholds  all  things  by  the  word  of  his  power, 
and  every  believer  may  adore  him,  and  say  with 
the  wondering  apostle,  when  the  light  of  faith 
shone  into  his  benighted  soul,  My  Lord  and 
my  God! 


PAKT  v.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  189 

Inference  4.  If  our  guilt  is  immense,  it 
can  not  be  expiated  without  a  sacrifice  of  an  in- 
finite dignity.  Hence  we  discover  the  mistake 
of  heathens  and  carnal  Jews,  who  trusted  in  the 
sacrifices  of  beasts,  the  error  of  Deists,  Moham- 
medans, and  Socinians,  who  see  no  need  of  any 
expiatory  sacrifice,  and  the  amazing  presumption 
of  too  many  Christians,  who  repose  a  consider- 
able part  of  their  confidence  in  the  proper  merit 
of  their  works,  instead  of  placing  it  entirely  in 
the  infinitely-meritorious  sacrifice  of  the  immacu- 
late Lamb  of  God,  humbly  acknowledging  that 
all  the  gracious  rewardableness  of  the  best  works 
of  faith  is  derived  from  his  precious  blood  and 
original  merit. 

Inference  6.  If  our  spiritual  maladies  are 
both  numerous  and  mortal,  it  is  evident  we  can 
not  recover  the  spiritual  health  that  we  enjoyed 
in  our  first  parents,  but  by  the  powerful  help  of 
our  heavenly  Physician,  the  second  Adam, 
ijow  absurd  is  it  then  to  say,  that  we  are  saved, 
or  recovered,  by  doing  good  works,  without  the 
quickening  grace  of  a  Savior ! 

A  wretched  beggar  is  lame,  both  in  his  hands 
and  feet.  An  officious  man,  instead  of  taking 
him  to  a  person  famous  for  his  skill  in  relieving 
such  objects  of  distress,  assures  him  that  the 
only  way  of  getting  well  is  to  run  of  errands  for 
his  prince,  and  work  for  his  fellow-beggars. 
You  justly  wonder  at  the  cruelty  and  folly  of 
such  a  director,  but  you  have  much  more  rea- 
son to  be  astonished  at  the  conduct  of  those 
miserable  empirics  who  direct  poor,  blind,  lame 


190  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  V. 

sinners,  laboring  under  a  complication  of  spir- 
itual disorders,  and  sick  even  to  eternal  death, 
to  save  themselves  merely  by  serving  God  and 
doing  good  to  their  neighbors,  as  if  they  needed 
neither  repentance  toward  God,  nor  faith  in  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  nor  yet  free  g^ace  to  enable 
them  to  repent,  believe,  and  serve  God  accept- 
ably. 

How  much  more  rational  is  the  evangelical 
method  of  salvation!  We  are  saved,  says  the 
apostle,  we  are  restored  to  saving  health,  and  a 
spiritual  activity  to  serve  God  and  our  neighbor, 
not  by  works,  not  of  ourselves,  but  by  grace,  by 
mere  favor,  through  faith,  through  such  an  en- 
tire confidence  in  our  Physician  as  makes  us 
gladly  take  his  powerful  remedies,  abstain  from 
the  pleasing  poison  of  sin,  and  feed  on  those 
divine  truths  which  communicate  angelical  vigor 
and  happiness  to  our  souls,  Eph.  ii,  8. 

Inference  6.  If  our  nature  is  so  completely 
fallen,  and  totally  helpless,  that  in  spiritual  things 
we  are  not  sufficient  of  ourselves  to  think  any 
thing  truly  good  as  of  ourselves,  but  our  suffi- 
ciency is  of  God,  it  is  plain  we  stand  in  absolute 
need  of  his  Spirit's  assistance,  to  enable  us  to 
pray,  repent,  believe,  love,  and  obey  aright. 
Consequently,  those  who  ridicule  the  Holy  Spirit 
and  his  sacred  influence,  despise  the  great  helpej 
of  our  infirmities,  and  act  a  most  irrational, 
wicked,  and  desperate  part,  Rom.  viii,  26. 

Inference  1.  If  by  nature  we  are  really 
and  truly  bom  in  sin,  our  regeneration  can  not 
be  a  mere  metaphor,  or  a  vain  ceremony — our 


PART  v.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  191 

spiritual  birth  must  be  real  and  positive.  How- 
fatal,  therefore,  is  the  mistake  of  those  who  sup- 
pose that  the  new  birth  is  only  a  figurative  ex- 
pression for  a  decent  behavior!  How  dreadful 
the  error  of  those  who  imagine  that  all  whose 
faces  have  been  typically  washed  with  material 
water  in  baptism,  are  now  effectually  born  again 
of  living  water  and  the  Holy  Spirit !  And  how 
inexcusable  the  case  of  the  multitudes,  who,  in 
the  Church  of  England,  are  under  this  danger- 
ous mistake,  so  prudently  guarded  agaiast  by 
our  pious  reformers ! 

In  our  catechism,  they  clearly  distinguish  be- 
tween the  outward,  visible  sign  or  form  in  bap- 
tism, and  the  inward,  spiritual  grace.  And  by 
defining  the  latter  a  death  to  sin,  and  a  new 
birth  to  righteousness,  they  declare  that  who- 
soever is  not  dead  or  dying  to  sin,  and  alive  to 
righteousness,  is  not  truly  regenerate,  and  has 
nothing  of  baptism  but  the  outward  and  visible 
sign.  In  the  twenty-seventh  of  our  articles  they 
mention,  that  baptism  is  not  the  new  birth,  but 
a  sign  of  regeneration  or  new  birth,  whereby,  as 
by  an  instrument,  they  who  receive  baptism 
rightly  are  grafted  into  the  Church.  And  if  our 
Church  returns  thanks  for  the  regeneration  of 
the  infants  whom  she  has  admitted  to  baptism, 
it  is  chiefly*  upon  a  charitable  supposition  that 


*  1  say  chiefly,  because  our  Church  gives  thanks  also 
for  Christ's  general  grace  and  mercy  to  children,  declar- 
ing herself  persuaded  of  the  good-will  of  our  heavenly 
Father  toward  this  [unbaptized]  infant,  through  Christ, 
who  said   that  of  little  children  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 


192  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PAB?  V. 

they  have  received  it  rightly,  and  will,  for  their 
part,  faithfully  perform  the  promises  made  for 
them  by  their  sureties.  If  they  refuse  to  do  it 
when  they  come  of  age,  far  from  treating  them 
as  her  regenerate  children,  she  denounces  a 
general  excommunication  against  them,  and 
charges  them  not  to  come  to  her  holy  table,  lest 
Satan  bring  them,  as  he  did  Judas,  to  destruc- 
tion both  of  body  and  soul. 

Inference  8.  If  the  fall  of  mankind  in  Adam 
does  not  consist  in  a  capricious  imputation  of 
his  personal  guilt,  but  in  a  real,  present  partici- 
pation of  his  depravity,  impotence,  and  misery, 
the  salvation  that  believers  have  in  Christ  is  not 
a  capricious  imputation  of  his  personal  righteous- 
ness, but  a  real,  present  participation  of  his  purity, 
power,  and  blessedness,  together  with  pardon 
and  acceptance. 

Unspeakably  dangerous,  then,  is  the  delusion 
of  those  whose  brains  and  mouths  are  filled  with 
the  notions  and  expressions  of  imputed  right- 
eousness, while  their  poor,  carnal,  unregeneratt 
hearts  remain  perfect  strangers  to  the  Lord,  oiu 
righteousness. 

Inference  9.  If  the  corrupt  nature  which 
sinners  derive  from  Adam  spontaneously  pro- 
duces all  the  wickedness  that  overspreads  the 
earth,  the  holy  nature  which  believers  receive 
from  Christ  is  also  spontaneously  productive  of 

The  truth  lies  between  the  error  of  the  Pelagians,  who 
suppose  that  unbaptized  infants  are  sinless,  like  angels,  and 
that  of  the  Papists,  who  affirm  that  they  are  graceless  as 
devils. 


PART  v.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  193 

all  the  fruits  of  righteousness  described  in  the 
oracles  of  God — good  works  springing  out,  nec- 
essarily *  of  a  true  and  lively  faith. 

Such  ministers,  therefore,  as  clearly  preach 
our  fall  in  Adam,  and  that  faith  in  Christ  which 
is  productive  of  genuine  holiness  and  active  love, 
will  infallibly  promote  good  works  and  pure 
morality,  when  those  who  insist  only  upon  works 
and  moral  duties  will  neither  be  zealous  of  good 
works  themselves,  nor  instrumental  in  turning 
sinners  from  their  gross  immoralities.  The  rea- 
son is  obvious :  evangelical  preachers  follow  their 
Lord's  wise  direction:  Make  the  tree  good,  and 
the  fruit  shall  be  good  also;  but  moralists  will 
have  corrupt  trees  bring  forth  good  fruit,  which, 
in  the  nature  of  things,  is  impossible.  Matt,  xiii, 
33 ;  Luke  vi,  43.  Therefore,  as  nothing  but 
faith  makes  the  tree  good,  and  as  without  faith 
it  is  impossible  to  please  God,  the  Christian  that 
will  come  to  him  with  good  works  must  not  only 
believe  [as  heathens]  that  he  is,  and  that  he  is  a 
rewarder  of  those  who  diligently  seek  him,  but 
also  that  he  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world 
to  himself,  etc. 

Inference  10.  If  corruption  and  sin  work 
so  powerfully  and  sensibly  in  the  hearts  of  the 
unregenerate,  we  may,  without  deserving  the 
name  of  enthusiasts,  affirm  that  the  regenerate 
are  sensible  of  the  powerful  effects  of  divine 
grace  in  their  souls ;  or,  to  use  the  words  of  our 

*  This  is  to  be  understood  of  a  moral,  and  not  of  an  ab- 
solute, irresistible  necessity;  for  faith  never  unmans  the 
believer. 

13 


194  AN  APPEAL  TO  [pART  V. 

seventeenth  article,  we  may  say,  They  feel  in 
themselves  the  workings  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ ; 
for,  where  the  poison  of  sin  hath  abounded,  and 
has  been,  of  course,  abundantly  felt,  grace,  the 
powerful  antidote  that  expels  it,  does  much 
more  abound,  and,  consequently,  may  be  much 
more  perceived. 

Therefore,  the  knowledge  of  salvation  by  the 
forgiveness  of  sins,  the  assurance  of  faith,  and 
the  peace  of  God  passing  all  understanding,  are 
the  experienced  blessings  of  the  converted,  as 
certainly  as  a  guilty  conscience,  the  gnawing  of 
worldly  cares,  the  working  of  evil  tempers,  the 
tumults  of  unbridled  appetites,  and  the  uproars 
of  rebellious  passions,  are  the  experienced  curses 
of  the  unconverted. 

Reader,  if  these  inferences  are  justly  drawn, 
is  it  not  evident  that  the  principles*  generally 
exploded  among  us,  as  enthusiastical  or  method- 
istical,  flow  from  the  doctrine  demonstrated  in 
this  treatise,  as  naturally  as  light  from  the  sun  ? 
These  consequences  lead  you  perhaps  farther 
than  you  could  wish ;  but  let  them  not  make 
you  either  afraid  or  ashamed  of  the  Gospel. 
Prejudices,  like  clouds,  will  vanish  away ;    but 


*  Those  doctrines,  pointed  out  in  the  ten  above-men- 
tioned inferences,  are,  1.  The  alarming  severity  of  the 
law.  2.  The  need  of  a  deep,  heart-felt  repentance.  3.  The 
divinity  of  Christ.  4.  The  infinite  merit  of  his  sacrifice. 
5.  Salvation  by  faith  in  him.  6.  The  influence  of  his  Holy 
Spirit.  7.  The  reality  of  the  new  birth.  8.  The  necessity 
of  a  present  salvation.  9.  The  zeal  of  believers  for  good 
works;  and,  10.  The  comfortable  assurance  which  they 
hare  of  their  regeneration. 


PART  v.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  195 

truth,  which  they  obscure  for  a  time,  like  the 
sun,  will  shine  for  ever.  A  great  man  in  the 
law  said,  Fiat  justitia,  mat  mundus.  Improve 
the  noble  sentiment,  and  say  with  equal  fortitude, 
Stet  Veritas,  mat  mundus — Let  truth  stand, 
though  the  universe  should  sink  into  ruins. 

But,  happily  for  us,  the  danger  is  all  on  the 
side  of  the  opposite  doctrine ;  and  that  you  may 
be  convinced  of  it,  I  present  you  next  with  a 
view  of  the  »  • 

DREADFUL    CONSEQUENCES 

NECESSARILY  RESULTING  FROM  THE  IGNORANCE  OF  OUR 
DEPRAVITY  AND  DANGER. 

1.  As  the  tempter  caused  the  fall  of  our  first 
parents,  by  inducing  them  to  believe  that  they 
should  not  surely  die  if  they  broke  the  Divine 
law,  so,  now  we  are  fallen,  he  prevents  our  re- 
covery, by  suggesting  "the  bitterness  of  death 
is  past,"  and  "  we  are  in  a  state  of  safety." 
Hence  it  is  that  you  sleep  on  in  carnal  security, 
O  ye  deluded  sons  of  men,  and  even  dream  ye 
are  safe  and  righteous.  Nor  can  ye  escape  for 
your  lives,  till  the  vail  of  unbelief  is  taken  away, 
and  ye  awake  to  a  sight  of  your  corrupt  and  lost 
estate ;  for  there  is  no  guarding  against,  nor  fly- 
ing from,  an  unseen,  unsuspected  evil.  Here,  as 
in  a  conspiracy,  the  danger  continually  increases, 
till  it  is  happily  discovered. 

2.  If  we  are  not  sensible  of  our  natural  cor- 
ruption, and  the  justice  of  the  curse  entailed 
upon  us  on  that  account,  can  we  help  thinking 
God  a  tyrant,  when  he  threatens  unconverted 


196  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  V. 

moralists  with  the  severest  of  his  judgments,  or 
causes  the  black  storms  of  his  providence  to 
overtake  us  and  our  dearest  relatives  ? 

Answer,  ye  self-righteous  Pharisees,  that  so 
bitterly  exclaim  against  the  ministers  who  de- 
clare, by  the  authority  of  Scripture,  that,  Except 
ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  perish.  Answer,  fond 
mother,  whose  tears  of  distraction  mix  with  the 
cold  sweat  of  the  convulsed,  dying  infant  on  thy 
lap.  Dost  thou  not  secretly  impeach  divine  Jus- 
tice, and  accuse  Heaven  of  barbarity  ?  Ah  !  if 
thou  didst  but  know  the  evil  nature  which  thou 
and  thy  Isaac  have  brought  into  the  world ;  if 
thou  sawest  the  root  of  bitterness  which  the  hand 
of  a  gracious  Providence  even  now  extracts  from 
his  heart,  far  from  being  ready  to  curse  God  and 
die  with  thy  child,  thou  wouldst  patiently  acqui- 
esce in  the  kindly-severe  dispensation,  thou 
wouldst  clear  him  when  he  is  judged  by  such  as 
thyself,  and  even  glorify  him  in  the  evil  day  of 
this  painful  visitation. 

3.  Though  man's  heart  is  hardened  as  steel, 
it  does  not  frequently  emit  the  hellish  sparks  of 
such  murmurings  against  God,  because  it  can 
seldom  be  struck  by  the  flint  of  such  severe 
afflictions;  yet  the  mischief  is  there,  and  will 
break  out,  if  not  by  blasphemous  despair,  at 
least  by  its  contrary — presumptuous  madness. 
Yes,  reader,  unless  thou  art  happily  made  ac- 
quainted with  the  strength  of  thy  inbred  deprav- 
ity, thou  wilt  rashly  venture  among  the  sparks 
of  temptation — with  carnal  confidence  thou  wilt 
ask,  "  What  harm  can  they  do  me  ?"     And  thou 


PART  v.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  19*7 

wilt  continue  the  hazardous  sport,  till  sin  and 
wrath  consume  thee  together.  Nor  will  this  be 
more  surprising  than  that  one  who  carries  a  bag 
of  gunpowder,  and  knows  not  the  dangerous 
nature  of  his  load,  should  fearlessly  rush  through 
the  midst  of  flames,  or  sparks,  till  he  is  blown 
up  and  destroyed. 

4.  This  fatal  rashness  is  generally  accom- 
panied with  a  glaring  inconsistency.  Do  not 
you  make  the  assertion  good,  ye  saints  of  the 
present  age,  who  pretend  to  have  found  the  secret 
of  loving  both  God  and  the  world  ?  Do  not  we 
hear  you  deny  to  men  that  you  are  condemned, 
and  yet  cry  to  God  to  have  mercy  upon  you  ? 
But  if  you  are  not  condemned,  what  need  have 
you  of  mercy?  And  if  you  are,  why  do  you 
deny  your  lost  estate?  Thou,  too,  reader,  wilt 
fall  into  this  absurdity,  unless  thou  knowest  thy 
just  condemnation.  But  the  mischief  will  not 
stop  here ;  for, 

5.  Ignorance  of  the  mystery  of  iniquity  within 
you  must,  in  the  nature  of  things,  cause  you  to 
neglect  prayer,  or  to  pray  out  of  character.  As 
unhumbled  moralists,  instead  of  approaching 
the  throne  of  grace  with  the  self-abasement  of 
the  penitent  publican,  saying,  God  be  merciful 
to  me,  a  sinner,  you  will  provoke  the  Most 
High  by  the  open  profaneness  of  the  Sadducee, 
or  insult  him  by  the  self-conceited  services  of 
the  Pharisee,  boasting  ye  do  no  harm,  and  thank- 
ing God  ye  are  not  as  other  men.  On  these 
rocks  your  formal  devotion  will  split,  till  you 
know,  that,  as  the  impenitent  and   prayerless 


198  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  V. 

shall  perish,  so  the  Lord  accepts  no  penitential 
prayer  but  that  of  the  man  who  knows  the 
plague  of  his  own  heart,  because  he  alone  prays 
in  his  own  character,  and  without  hypocrisy, 
1  Pet.  V,  5 ;  1  Kings  viii,  38. 

6.  And  as  you  can  not  approach  the  throne 
of  grace  aright,  while  you  remain  insensible  of 
your  corruption,  so  the  reading  or  preaching  of 
God's  word,  fill  it  answers  the  end  of  convic- 
tion, is  of  no  service  to  you,  but  rather  proves, 
to  use  St.  Paul's  nervous  expression,  the  savor 
of  death  unto  death;  for  when  the  terrors  of 
the  law  only  suit  your  case,  you  vainly  catch  at 
the  comforts  of  the  Gospel,  or,  rather,  you  re- 
main as  unaffected  under  the  threatenings  of  the 
one  as  under  the  promises  of  the  other;  you 
look  on  Mount  Sinai  and  on  Mount  Sion  with 
equal  indifference,  and  the  warmth  of  the 
preacher  who  invites  you  to  fly  from  the  wrath 
to  come,  appears  to  you  an  instance  of  religious 
madness.  Nor  is  it  a  wonder  it  should,  while 
you  continue  unacquainted  with  your  danger ; 
when  a  mortal  disease  is  neither  felt  nor  sus- 
pected, a  pathetic  address  upon  its  consequences 
and  cure  must  be  received  by  any  reasonable 
man  with  the  greatest  unconcern,  and  the  person 
that  makes  it  in  earnest  must  appear  exceedingly 
ridiculous.     Again : 

7.  My  people  are  destroyed  for  lack  of  knowl- 
edge, says  the  Lord.  This  is  true,  particularly 
with  regard  to  the  knowledge  of  our  depravity. 
Reader,  if  thou  remainest  a  stranger  to  it,  thou 
wilt  look  upon  slight  confession  of  outward  sins 


PAST  v.]        MATTER  OF  FACT.  199 

as  true  repentance,  and  the  godly  sorrow,  that 
worketh  repentance  to  salvation,  will  appear  to 
thee  a  symptom  of  melancholy.  Taking  an  ex- 
ternal reformation  of  manners,  or  a  change  of 
ceremonies  and  opinions,  for  true  conversion, 
thou  wilt  think  thyself  in  a  safe  state,  while  thy 
heart  continues  habitually  wandering  from  God, 
and  under  the  dominion  of  a  worldly  spirit.  In 
a  word,  some  of  the  branches  of  the  tree  of  cor- 
ruption thou  mayest  possibly  lop  off,  but  the  root 
will  still  remain  and  gather  strength;  for  it  is 
plain  that  a  bad  root,  supposed  not  to  exist,  can 
neither  be  heartily  lamented,  nor  earnestly  struck 
at  with  the  ax  of  self-denial. 

Even  a  heathen  could  say,  "  The  knowledge 
of  sin  is  the  first  step  toward  salvation  from  it; 
for  he  who  knows  not  that  he  sins,  will  not  sub- 
mit to  be  set  right;  thou  must  find  out  what 
thou  art  before  thou  canst  mend  thyself ;  there- 
fore, when  thou  discoverest  thy  vices,  to  which 
thou  wast  before  a  stranger,  it  is  a  sign  that  thy 
soul  is  in  a  better  state."* 

8.  It  is  owing  to  the  want  of  this  discovery, 
0  ye  pretended  sons  of  reason,  that,  thinking 
yourselves  born  pure,  or  supposing  the  diseases 
of  your  nature  to  be  inconsiderable,  you  imagine 
it  possible  to  be  your  own  physicians,  when 
you  are  only  your  own  destroyers.     Hence  it 


*  Initium  est  salutis,  notitia  peccati,  nam  qui  peccare  se 
nescit  corrigi  non  vult:  Deprehendas  te  opportetet  antequam 
emendes.  Sen.  Ep.  xxviii. — Et  hoc  ipsum  argumentum  est 
in  melius  translati  animi,  quod  vitia  sua,  quae  adliuc  ignora- 
bat,  videt.     Ep.  vi. . 


coo  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  V. 

is,  that,  while  you  give  to  Jesus  the  titular 
honor  of  Savior,  you  speak  perpetually  of  be- 
ing "  saved  merely  by  your  duties  and  best  en- 
deavors," Hear  him  warning  you  against  this 
common  delusion :  O  Israel,  says  he,  ihou  hast 
destroyed  thyself,  but  in  me  is  thy  help  found. 
The  whole  need  not  a  physician,  but  they  that 
are  sick,  beyond  all  hopes  of  recovering  them- 
selves. 

9.  The  prescriptions  of  this  wise  Physician 
are  excessively  severe  to  flesh  and  blood,  and 
some  of  his  remedies  as  violent  as  our  disease. 
Therefore,  except  we  see  the  greatness  of  our 
danger,  we  shall  beg  to  be  excused  from  taking 
the  bitter  potion.  Who  can  have  resolution 
enough  to  cut  off  a  right  hand,  pluck  out  a  right 
eye,  to  take  up  his  cross  daily,  to  deny  himself, 
and  lose  even  his  own  life,  or,  what  is  often 
dearer,  his  fair  reputation?  Who,  I  say,  can 
do  this,  till  a  sight  of  imminent  ruin  on  the  one 
hand,  and  of  redeeming  love  on  the  other,  makes 
him  submit  to  the  painful  injunctions  ?  Thou 
lovely  youth,  noted  in  the  Gospel  for  thy  harm- 
lessness,  I  appeal  to  thy  wretched  experience. 
When  the  Physician  of  souls,  at  whose  feet  thou 
wast  prostrate,  commanded  thee  to  sell  all  and 
follow  him,  what  made  thee  go  away  sorrowful 
and  undone  ?  Not  barely  thy  great  possessions, 
but  the  ignorance  of  thy  condition ;  for  all  that 
a  man  hath  will  he  give  for  his  life,  when  he 
sees  it  in  immediate  danger.  Matt,  xix,  22. 

10.  If  it  is  a  desperate  step  to  turn  away  from 
the  Prince  of  life,  it  is  a  daring  one  to  approach 


PART  v.]        MATTER  OF  FACT.  201 

him  with  a  mere  compliment.  Of  this,  never- 
theless, you  are  guilty,  ye  unawakened  sinners, 
who  daily  appear  before  the  throne  of  grace, 
with  thanks  and  praises  to  God  for  his  inestima- 
ble love  in  the  redemption  of  the  world  by  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Alas !  when  you  deny  the 
state  of  sin  and  misery  in  which  you  are  by 
nature,  and  yet  presume  to  thank  God  for  re- 
demption from  it,  do  you  not  mock  him  as 
solemnly  as  you  would  the  king,  were  you  to 
present  him  every  day  an  address  of  thanks  for 
redeeming  you  from  Turkish  slavery,  when  you 
never  knew  yourselves  slaves  in  Turkey?  O, 
how  provoking  to  God  must  these  unmeaning 
thanksgivings  be !  Surely,  one  day,  they  will  be 
ranked  among  the  indignities  offered  by  earthly 
worms  to  the  Majesty  on  high. 

11.  Some,  indeed,  more  consistent  than  you, 
openly  throw  off  the  mask.  Seeing  neither  the 
unfathomable  depth  of  their  misery  by  the  fall, 
nor  the  immense  hight  of  their  aggravated  in- 
iquities, they  do  not  trifle  with,  but  at  once  deny, 
the  Lord  that  bought  them.  Yes,  far  from  ad- 
miring the  estabhshed  method  of  a  salvation 
procured  at  so  immense  a  price  as  the  incarna- 
tion and  crucifixion  of  the  Son  of  God,  they  are 
not  afraid  to  intimate  it  is  irrational ;  and  upon 
their  principle  they  may  well  do  it,  for,  if  our 
ruin  is  not  immense,  what  need  is  there  for  an 
immensely-glorious  Redeemer?  And  if  our 
guilt  reaches  not  up  to  heaven,  why  should  the 
Son  of  God  have  come  down  from  thence,  to 
put  away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself? 


202  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PART  V. 

12.  As  we  slight  or  reject  the  Savior,  till  we 
are  truly  convinced  of  the  evil  and  danger  of 
sin,  so  we  worship  a  false  god — a  mere  idol; 
for,  instead  of  adoring  Jehovah,  infinite  in  his 
holiness  and  hatred  of  sin,  inviolable  in  the  truth 
of  his  threatenings  against  it,  and  impartial  in 
his  strict  justice — a  God  in  whose  presence  un- 
humbled  sinners  are  not  able  to  stand,  and  with 
whom  evil  can  not  dwell,  we  bow  to  a  strange 
god,  whom  pious  men  never  knew — a  god 
formed  by  our  own  fancy,  so  unholy  as  to  con- 
nive at  sin,  so  unjust  as  to  set  aside  his  most 
righteous  law,  and  so  false  as  to  break  his  solemn 
word,  that  we  must  turn  or  die,  Ezek.  xxxiii,  11. 
Is  not  this  worshiping  a  god  of  our  own  mak- 
ing ?  or,  as  David  describes  him,  a  god  altogether 
such  as  ourselves  ?  To  adore  an  idol  of  paste, 
made  by  the  baker  and  the  priest,  may  be  indeed 
more  foolish,  but  can  not  be  more  wicked,  than 
to  adore  one  made  by  our  wild  imagination  and 
impious  unbelief. 

13.  We  may  go  one  step  farther  still,  and 
affirm,  that,  till  we  are  deeply  convinced  of  sin, 
far  from  worshiping  the  true  God — which  im- 
plies knowing,  loving,  and  admiring  him  in  all 
his  perfections — we  hate  and  oppose  him  in  his 
infinite  holiness  and  justice.  The  proof  is  ob- 
vious :  two  things  diametrically  opposite  in  their 
nature  can  never  be  approved  of  at  once.  If 
we  do  not  side  with  divine  Holiness  and  Justice, 
abhor  our  corruption,  and  condemn  ourselves 
as  hell-deserving  sinners,  far  from  approving, 
we  shall  rise  against  the  holy  and   righteous 


PART  v.]  MATTKR  OF  FACT.  203 

God,  who  sentences  us  to  eternal  death  for  our 
sin:  we  shall  at  least  wish  he  were  less  pure 
and  just  than  he  is;  which  amounts  to  wishing 
him  to  be  no  God.  While  proud  fiends  betray 
this  horrid  disposition  by  loud  blasphemies  in 
hell,  ye  do  it,  O  ye  unconvinced  sons  of  men, 
by  your  aversion  to  godliness  upon  earth. 
Haters  of  God  is,  then,  the  proper  name,  and 
enmity  against  him  the  settled  temper,  of  all 
unhumbled,  unconverted  sinners,  Rom.  i,  30,  and 
viii,  7. 

14.  When  the  nature  of  God  is  mistaken, 
what  wonder  if  his  law  is  misapprehended? 
The  law  is  good,  says  St.  Paul,  if  a  man  use  it 
lawfully ;  but  if  we  make  an  improper  use  of  it, 
the  consequence  is  fatal.  Since  the  fall,  the 
law  of  God,  as  contradistinguished  from  the 
Gospel  of  Christ,  points  out  to  us  the  spotless 
holiness  and  inflexible  justice  of  its  divine  Au- 
thor. It  teaches  us  with  what  ardor  and  con- 
stancy we  should  love  both  our  Creator  and 
our  fellow- creatures.  As  a  bank  cast  against 
the  stream  of  our  iniquity,  it  accidentally  serves 
to  make  it  rise  the  higher,  and  to  discover  its 
impetuosity ;  for  by  the  law  is  the  knowledge 
of  sin.  It  demonstrates  man's  weakness,  who 
consents,  indeed,  to  the  law  that  is  good,  but 
finds  not  how  to  fulfill  it,  Rom.  vii,  16,  19.  As 
a  battery  erected  against  our  pride,  when  it  has 
its  due  effect,  it  silences  all  our  self-righteous 
pleas,  and  convinces  us  that  a  returning  sinner 
is  not  justified  by  the  works  of  the  law,  but  by 
the  faith  of  Christ;  a  broken  law — ^a  law  which 


204  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PABT  V. 

worketh  wrath,  being  absolutely  unable  to  ab- 
solve its  violator.  In  a  word,  it  is  our  school- 
master to  bring  us  to  Christ,  and  drives  us  with 
the  rod  of  threatening  punishments,  to  make  us 
touch  the  scepter  of  mercy  held  out  to  us  from 
the  throne  of  grace. 

But  while  we  remain  strangers  to  our  help- 
less and  hopeless  state  by  nature,  far  from 
making  this  proper  use  of  the  law,  we  trust  in  it, 
and  fancy  that  the  merit  of  our  unsprinkled  obe- 
dience to  it  is  the  way  of  salvation.  Thus  we 
go  about  to  estabhsh  our  own  righteousness, 
making  light  of  the  atoning  blood  which  marks 
the  new  and  living  way  to  heaven.  This  very 
mistake  ruined  the  Pharisees  of  old,  and  destroys 
their  numerous  followers  in  all  ages,  Rom. 
ix,  31. 

16.  And  when  we  form  such  wrong  appre- 
hensions of  the  law,  is  it  possible  that  we  should 
have  right  views  of  the  Gospel,  and  receive  it 
with  cordial  affection?  Reason  and  experience 
answer  in  the  negative.  What  says  the  Gospel 
to  sinners?  You  are  saved  by  grace,  through 
mere  favor  and  mercy,  not  by  the  covenant  of 
works,  lest  any  man  should  boast,  like  the  Phar- 
isee, Eph.  ii,  8.  Now,  ye  decent  formahsts, 
ye  fond  admirers  of  your  own  virtue,  are  you 
not  utterly  disqualified  to  seek  and  accept  a 
pardon  in  the  Gospel  way  ?  for  your  seeking 
it  upon  the  footing  of  mere  mercy,  implies  an 
acknowledgment  that  you  deserve  the  ruin 
threatened  against  sinners.  And  supposing  a 
pardon  were  granted  you,  before  you  had  a  con- 


PART  v.]  MATTER  OF  FACT,  206 

sciousness  of  your  sad  deserts,  you  could  not 
receive  it  as  an  act  of  mere  grace,  but  only  as  a 
reward  justly  bestowed  upon  you  for  the  merit 
of  your  works.  It  is  plain,  then,  that,  according 
to  the  Gospel  plan,  none  can  be  fit  subjects  of 
salvation  but  those  who  are  truly  sensible  of 
their  condemnation. 

16.  But  as  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ  is  the 
original  and  properly-meritorious  cause  of  our 
salvation,  so  the  grand,  instrumental  cause  of 
it  is  faith  on  our  part.  Through  faith  are  ye 
saved,  says  St.  Paul.  Now,  if  to  have  faith  in 
Christ  is  habitually  to  lift  up  our  hearts  to  him 
with  a  humble,  and  yet  cheerful  confidence, 
seeking  in  him  all  our  wisdom,  righteousness, 
and  strength,  as  being  our  instructing  prophet, 
atoning  priest,  and  protecting  king,  it  is  evident, 
that,  till  we  awake  to  a  sight  of  our  fallen  state, 
we  can  not  believe,  nor,  consequently,  be  saved. 
O,  ye  that  never  were  sensible  of  your  spiritual 
blindness,  can  you  with  sincerity  take  Jesus  for 
your  guide,  and  desire  his  Spirit  to  lead  you  into 
all  truth  ?  Does  not  David's  prayer,  "  Open 
thou  mine  eyes,  that  I  may  see  the  wonderful 
things  of  thy  law,"  appear  to  you  needless,  if 
not  fanatical  ?  And  is  not  the  Redeemer's  pro- 
phetic office  thrown  away  upon  such  sons  of 
wisdom  as  you  are? 

Have  you  a  greater  value  for  Jesus  than  they, 
0,  ye  just  men,  who  have  no  sensible  need  of 
heart-felt  repentance,  and  whose  breasts  were 
never  dilated  by  one  sigh  under  a  due  sense  of 
your  gmlt  and  condemnation?     Can  you,  with- 


206  AN  APPEAL  TO  [pART  V. 

out  hypocrisy,  apply  to  him  as  the  high  priest 
of  the  guilty,  claim  him  as  the  advocate  of  the 
condemned,  or  fly  to  him  as  the  Savior  of  the 
lost?  Impossible!  Ye  fondly  hope  ye  never 
were  lost — ye  were  always  "good  livers,  good 
believers,  good  Churchmen" — ye  need  not  make 
so  much  ado  about  an  interest  in  the  blood  of 
the  new  covenant. 

And  ye  who,  flushed  with  the  conceit  of  your 
native  strength,  wonder  at  the  weakness  of  those 
that  continually  bow  to  the  scepter  of  Jesus' 
grace  for  protection  and  power,  can  you,  without 
a  smile  of  pity,  hear  him  say,  "  Without  me  ye 
can  do  nothing  ?"  Is  it  possible  that  you  should 
sincerely  implore  the  exertion  of  his  royal  power 
for  victory  over  sins,  which  you  suppose  your- 
selves able  to  conquer,  and  for  the  restoration 
of  a  nature,  with  the  goodness  of  which  you  are 
already  so  well  satisfied  ?  Your  reason  loudly 
answers.  No.  Therefore,  till  you  see  yourselves 
corrupt,  impotent  creatures,  you  will  openly 
neglect  the  Redeemer,  give  to  your  aggravated 
sins  the  name  of  "  human  frailties,"  and  trust 
to  your  bafiled,  and  yet  boasted  endeavors. 
Self-deception !  Art  thou  not  of  all  impostors 
the  most  common  and  dangerous,  because  the 
least  suspected  ? 

To  sum  up  and  close  these  important  remarks : 
Look  at  those  who,  in  mystic  Babylon,  are  not 
truly  sensible  of  their  total  fall  from  God,  and 
you  will  see  them  setting  their  own  reason  above 
the  holy  Scriptures,  and  their  works  in  compe- 
tition with  the  infinitely-meritorious  sacrifice  of 


PART  v.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  207 

Christ.  Inquire  into  their  principles,  and  you 
will  discover  that  they  either  openly  explode  as 
enthusiastical,  or  slightly  receive,  as  unnecessary, 
the  doctrines  of  salvation  by  faith  in  Christ,  and 
regeneration  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  Examine 
their  conduct,  and  you  will  tind  they  all  commit 
sin,  and  receive  the  mark  of  the  beast  secretly 
in  the  right  hand,  or  openly  in  their  foreheads. 
Rev.  xiii,  16.  Sort  them,  and  you  will  have 
two  bands,  the  one  of  skeptics  and  the  other  of 
formalists,  who,  though  at  as  great  enmity  be- 
tween themselves  as  Pilate  and  Herod,  are,  like 
them,  made  friends  together  by  jointly  deriding 
and  condemning  Jesus  in  his  living  members. 

And  if,  with  the  candle  of  the  Lord,  you  search 
the  Jerusalem  of  professing  Christians,  you  will 
perceive  that  the  want  of  a  heart-felt,  humbling 
knowledge  of  their  natural  depravity,  gives  birth 
to  the  double-mindedness  of  hypocrites,  and  the 
miscarriages  or  apostasy  of  those  who  once  dis- 
tinguished themselves  in  the  evangelical  race ; 
you  will  easily  trace  back  to  the  same  corrupt 
source  the  seemingly-opposite  errors  of  the  loose 
Antinomian,  and  the  Pharisaic  legalist,  those 
spiritual  thieves  by  whom  the  sincere  Christian 
is  perpetually  reviled  ;  and,  in  short,  you  will  be 
convinced,  that,  if  you  set  your  eyes  upon  a  man 
who  is  not  yet  deeply  conscious  of  his  corrupt 
and  lost  estate,  or  whose  consciousness  of  it  has 
worn  away,  you  behold  either  a  trifler  in  religion, 
a  dead-hearted  Pharisee,  a  sly  hypocrite,  a  loose 
Antinomian,  a  self-conceited  formalist,  a  scoffing 
infidel,  or  a  wretched  apostate. 


208  AN  APPEAL  TO  [pART  V. 

You  see,  reader,  what  a  train  of  fatal  conse- 
quences result  from  rejecting,  or  not  properly 
receiving,  the  doctrine  demonstrated  in  these 
sheets  ;  and  now  that  you  may  cordially  embrace 
it,  permit  me  to  enumerate  the 

UNSPEAKABLE  ADVANTAGES 

SPRINOmG    FROM    AN    AFFECTING    KNOWLEDOI!   OF   OUR 
FALLEN  AND  LOST  ESTATE. 

No  sooner  is  the  disease  rightly  known,  than 
the  neglected  Jesus,  who  is  both  our  gracious 
Physician  and  powerful  remedy,  is  properly 
valued,  and  ardently  sought.  All  that  thus 
seek,  find ;  and  all  that  find  him,  find  saving 
health,  eternal  life,  and  heaven. 

Bear  your  testimony  with  me,  ye  children  of 
Abraham  and  of  God,  who  see  the  brightness  of 
a  Gospel  day,  and  rejoice.  Say,  what  made  you 
first  wishfully  look  to  the  hills,  whence  your  sal- 
vation is  come,  and  fervently  desire  to  behold 
the  sin-dispelling  beams  of  the  Sun  of  righteous- 
ness ?  Was  it  not  the  deep,  dismal  night  of  our 
fallen  nature,  which  you  happily  discovered  when, 
awakening  from  the  sleep  of  sin,  you  first  saw 
the  delusive  dreams  of  life,  as  they  appear  to  the 
dying  ?  What  was  the  Desire  of  nations  to  you 
till  you  felt  yourselves  lost  sinners  ?  Alas  !  noth- 
ing— perhaps  less  than  nothing — an  object  of 
disgust  or  scorn.  When  the  pearl  of  great  price 
was  presented  to  you,  did  you  regard  it  more 
than  the  vilest  of  brutes  an  oriental  pearl  ?  and, 
as  if  it  had  not  been  enough  to  look  at  it  with 
disdain,  were  not  some  of  you  ready  to  turn 


_  ■    r  w 

PART  V.J  MATTER  OF  FACT.  209 

again,  and  rend,  after  the  example  of  snarling 
animals,  those  who  affectionately  made  you  the 
invaluable  offer?  Matt,  vii,  6. 

But  when  the  storm  that  shook  Mount  Sinai 
overtook  your  careless  souls,  and  ye  saw  your- 
selves sinking  into  an  abyss  of  misery,  did  ye 
not  cry  out,  and  say,  as  the  alarmed  disciples, 
with  an  unknown  energy  of  desire,  "  Save,  Lord, 
or  we  perish?"  And  when  conscious  of  your 
lost  estate,  ye  began  to  believe  that  he  came  to 
seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost,  how  dear, 
how  precious  was  he  to  you  in  all  his  offices! 
How  glad  were  you  to  take  guilty,  weeping, 
Magdalen's  place,  and  wait  for  a  pardon  at  your 
High  Priest's  feet !  How  importunate  in  saying 
to  your  King,  as  the  hapless  widow,  Lord,  avenge 
me  of  mine  adversary,  my  evil  heart  of  unbelief ! 
How  earnest,  how  unwearied  in  your  applica- 
tions to  your  Prophet  for  heavenly  light  and 
wisdom!  The  incessant  prayer  of  blind  Barti- 
meus  was  then  yours,  and  so  was  the  gracious 
answer  which  the  Lord  returned  to  him;  you 
received  your  spiritual  sight.  And  0 !  what 
saw  you  then  ?  The  sacred  book  unsealed  I 
Your  sins  blotted  out  as  a  cloud !  The  glory  of 
God  shining  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ;  and 
"  the  kingdom  of  heaven  opened  to  all  believers !" 

Then,  and  not  till  then,  you  could  say  from 
the  heart,  This  is  a  faithful  saying,  and  worthy 
of  all  acceptation,  that  Christ  Jesus  came  into 
the  world  to  save  sinners,  of  whom  I  am  the 
chief,  1  Tim.  i,  15.  Then  you  could  cry  out 
with  his  first  disciples,  Behold  what  manner  of 
14 


210  AN  APPEAL  TO  [PABT  V. 

love  the  Father  hath  bestowed  upon  us,  that  we 
should  be  called  the  sons  of  God!  1  John  iii,  1. 
We  are  all  the  children  of  God  by  faith  in  Christ 
Jesus,  whoHQ,  having  not  seen,  we  love ;  in  whom, 
though  now  we  see  him  not,  yet  believing, 
we  rejoice  with  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of 
glory,  receiving  the  end  of  our  faith,  the  salva- 
tion of  our  souls,  Gal.  iii,  26;  1  Peter  i,  8. 
We  trusted  in  him,  and  are  helped;  therefore 
our  heart  danced  for  joy,  and  in  our  song  will 
we  praise  him,  Psa.  xxviii,  8.  To  him  that  hath 
loved  us,  and  washed  us  from  our  sins  in  his 
own  blood,  and  hath  made  us  kings  and  priests 
unto  God  and  his  Father;  to  him  be  glory  and 
dominion  for  ever  and  ever.  Rev.  i,  5. 

And  this  will  also  be  your  triumphant  song, 
attentive  reader,  if,  deeply  conscious  of  your 
lost  estate,  you  spread  your  guilt  and  misery 
before  Him  who  came  to  bind  up  the  broken- 
hearted, to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  captives,  and 
the  opening  of  the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound ; 
and  to  comfort  all  that  mourn,  by  giving  them 
beauty  for  ashes,  the  oil  of  joy  for  mourning, 
and  the  garment  of  praise  for  the  spirit  of  heavi- 
ness, Isa.  Ixi,  1.  Your  sorrow,  it  is  true,  may 
endure  for  a  night,  but  joy  will  come  in  the 
morning,  the  joy  of  God's  salvation,  and  the 
pardon  of  your  sins.  Having  much  forgiven 
you,  you  will  then  love  much,  and  admire  in 
proportion,  the  riches  of  divine  Wisdom,  Good- 
ness, Justice,  and  Power,  that  so  graciously  con- 
trived, and  so  wonderfully  executed  the  plan  of 
your  redemption.     You  will  be  ravished  in  ex- 


PARTY.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  8  It 

periencing  that  a  condemned  sinner  can  not  only 
escape  impending  ruin,  but  enter  into  present 
possession  of  a  spiritual  paradise,  where  peace 
and  joy  blossom  together,  and  whence  welcome 
death,  will,  erelong,  translate  your  triumphant 
soul  to  those  unseen,  unheard-of,  inconceivable 
glories,  which  God  hath  prepared  for  them  that 
love  him,  1  Cor.  ii,  9. 

Nor  will  the  blossoms  of  heavenly  peace  and 
joy  only  diffuse  their  divine  fragrancy  in  your 
soul ;  all  the  fruits  of  holiness  will  grow  together 
with  them,  to  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  profit 
of  mankind.  And  thou  wilt  not  be  the  last, 
thou  fair,  thou  blushing  humility,  to  bend  all  the 
spreading  branches  of  pride  to  the  tree  of  right- 
eousness. No,  we  can  not  be  vain,  or  despisers 
of  others,  when  we  see  that  we  are  all  corrupted, 
dying  shoots,  of  the  same  corrupted,  dead  stalk ; 
we  can  not  be  self-righteous,  when  we  are  per- 
suaded that  the  best  fruit  which  we  can  naturally 
produce,  is  only  splendid  sin,  or  vice  colored 
over  with  the  specious  appearance  of  virtue :  we 
must  lie  prostrate  in  the  dust,  when  we  consider 
the  ignominious  cross,  where  our  divine  Surety 
hung,  bled,  and  died,  to  ransom  our  guilty  souls. 

A  genuine  conviction  of  our  corruption  and 
demerit  thus  striking  at  the  very  root  of  our 
pride,  necessarily  fills  our  hearts  with  inexpress- 
ible gratitude  for  every  favor  we  receive,  gives 
an  exquisite  relish  to  the  least  blessing  we  enjoy, 
and  teaches  us  to  say  with  the  thankful  patriarch, 
I  am  not  worthy  of  the  least  of  all  thy  mercies: 
and  as  it  renders  us  grateful  to  God,  and  all 


212  AN  APPEAL  TO  [part  V. 

our  benefactors,  so  it  makes  us  patient  under 
the  greatest  injuries,  resigned  in  the  heaviest 
trials,  glad  to  be  reproved,  willing  to  forgive  the 
faults  of  others,  open  to  acknowledge  our  own, 
disposed  to  sympathize  with  the  guilty,  tender- 
hearted toward  the  miserable,  incapable  of 
being  offended  at  any  one,  and  ready  to  do 
every  office  of  kindness,  even  to  the  meanest  of 
mankind. 

Again :  no  sooner  are  we  properly  acquainted 
with  our  helplessness,  than  we  give  over  leaning 
on  an  arm  of  flesh,  and  the  broken  reed  of  our 
own  resolutions.  Reposing  our  entire  confi- 
dence in  the  living  God,  we  fervently  implore 
his  continual  assistance,  carefully  avoid  tempta- 
tions, gladly  acknowledge  that  the  help  which 
is  done  upon  the  earth  the  Lord  doeth  it  himself, 
and  humbly  give  him  the  gloiy  of  all  the  good 
that  appears  in  ourselves  and  others. 

Once  more:  as  soon  as  we  can  discover  our 
spiritual  blindness,  we  mistrust  our  own  judg- 
ment, feel  the  need  of  instruction,  modestly  re- 
pair to  the  experienced  for  advice,  carefully 
search  the  Scriptures,  readily  follow  their  blessed 
directions,  and  fervently  pray  that  no  false  light 
may  mislead  us  out  of  the  way  of  salvation. 

To  conclude:  a  right  knowledge  that  the 
crown  is  fallen  from  our  head,  will  make  us 
abominate  sin,  the  cause  of  our  ruin,  and  raise 
in  us  a  noble  ambition  of  regaining  our  original 
state  of  blissful  and  glorious  righteousness.  It 
will  set  us  upon  an  earnest  inquiry  into,  and  a 
proper  use  of,  all  the  means  conducive  to  our 


PART  v.]  MATTER  OF  FACT.  213 

recovery.  Even  the  sense  of  our  guilt  will 
prove  useful,  by  helping  to  break  our  obdurate 
hearts,  by  imbittering  the  baits  of  worldly  vani- 
ties, and  filling  our  souls  with  penitential  sorrow. 
Before  honor  is  humility.  This  happy  humilia- 
tion makes  way  for  the  greatest  exaltation; 
for  thus  saith  the  high  and  lofty  One,  that  in- 
habiteth  eternity:  "I  dwell  in  the  high  and  holy 
place,  with  him  also  that  is  of  a  contrite  and 
humble  spirit,  to  revive  the  spirit  of  the  humble, 
and  the  heart  of  the  contrite,  to  fill  the  hungry 
with  good  things,  and  beautify  the  meek  with 
salvation,"  Isaiah  Ivii,  15. 

If  these  advantages,  which  exceed  the  worth 
of  earthly  crowns,  necessarily  result  from  the 
proper  knowledge  of  our  corrupt  and  lost  estate, 
who,  but  an  infatuated  enemy  of  his  own  soul, 
would  be  afraid  of  that  self-science?  who  but 
an  obstinate  Pharisee  would  not  esteem  it,  next 
to  the  knowledge  of  Christ,  the  greatest  bless- 
ing which  Heaven  can  bestow  upon  the  self- 
destroyed,  and  yet  self- conceited  children  of 
men  ?  Careless  reader,  if  thou  art  the  person — 
if,  remaining  unshaken  in  thy  carnal  confidence, 
and  supposing  thyself  wiser  than  seven  men  that 
can  render  a  reason,  thou  not  only  despisest  the 
testimony  of  the  sacred  writers,  and  our  pious 
reformers,  laid  before  thee  in  the  first  part  of 
this  treatise,  but  disregardest  the  numerous  ar- 
guments it  contains,  tramplest  under  foot  both 
matter  of  fact  and  common  sense,  and  remainest 
unaffected  by  the  most  dreadful  consequences 
of  self-ignorance  on  the  one  hand,  and  by  the 


214  AN  APPEAL,  KTO.  [pART  V. 

greatest  advantages  of  self-knowledge  on  the 
other,  I  have  done,  and  must  take  my  leave  of 
thee. 

May  the  merciful  and  holy  God,  whose  laws 
thou  dost  daily  violate,  whose  word  thou  hourly 
opposest  or  forgettest,  whose  salvation  thou  dost 
every  moment  neglect,  whose  vengeance  thou 
continually  provokest,  and  whose  cause  I  have 
attempted  to  plead,  bear  with  thee  and  thy  in- 
sults a  little  longer!  May  his  infinite  patience 
yet  afiford  thee  some  means  of  conviction  more 
effectual  than  that  which  is  at  present  in  thy 
hands!  Or,  shouldst  thou  look  into  this  labor 
of  love  once  more,  may  it  then  answer  a  better 
purpose  than  to  aggravate  thy  guilt,  and  enhance 
thy  condemnation,  by  rendering  the  folly  of  thy 
unbelief  more  glaring,  and,  consequently,  more 
inexcusable  I 


END  OF  THE  APPEAL. 


ADDRESS 

TO    SUCH    AS   mQUIRE,    WHAT  MUST   WE  DO 
TO  BE,  SAVED? 


Serious  Reader, — Having  taken  my  leave  of 
the  thoughtless  gay,  who  regard  an  appeal  to 
their  reason  as  little  as  they  do  the  warnings  of 
their  conscience,  I  return  to  thee,  serious  and 
well-disposed  reader.*  I  am  too  much  con- 
cerned for  thy  soul's  welfare,  to  lay  down  my  pen 
without  showing  thee  more  perfectly  the  way  to 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  by  testifying  to  thee 
"  repentance  toward  God,  and  faith  in  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ." 

Thou  art  happily  weary  of  feeding  upon  the 
husks  of  earthly  vanities.  I  have  a  right,  there- 
fore, as  a  steward  of  the  mysteries  of  God,  to 
bring  out  of  the  divine  treasury  the  pearls  of 
evangelical  truth ;  and  I  gladly  cast  them  before 
thee,  persuaded  that,  far  from  awakening  thy 
anger,  they  will  excite  thy  desires,  animate  thy 
languid  hopes. 

*  This  address  was  first  published  by  the  late  Rev.  Mr 
Fletcher,  at  the  close  of  his  Jlppeal  to  Matter  of  Fact,  itc, 
and  is  only  calculated  for  serious  persons,  who  cordially 
assent  to  the  doctrine  established  in  the  Rational  Demon- 
stration of  our  Fallen  and  Lost  Estate.  As  other  readers 
have  been  dismissed  with  the  portion  of  truth  that  belongs 
to  them,  they  are  desired  not  to  meddle  with  this,  lest  their 
cavils  confirm  St.  Paul's  observation,  JVe  preach  Christ 
crucified,  to  the  self-righteous  Jews  a  stumbling  block,  and 
to  the  sell-conceited  Greeks  foolishness. 
1 


2  ADDRESS. 

Instead  of  ridiculing,  or  dreading  a  heart- 
felt conviction  of  thy  lost  estate,  thou  now  seest 
it  is  a  desirable  privilege,  an  invaluable  blessing. 
Ready  to  mourn,  because  thou  canst  not  mourn, 
thou  com  plainest  that  thou  hast  only  a  confused 
view  of  thy  total  depravity.  Thou  wantest  the 
feelings  of  the  royal  penitent,  when  he  said, 
"Behold,  I  was  shapen  in  iniquity,"  etc.  "I 
acknowledge  my  transgressions,  and  my  sin  is 
ever  before  me ;"  but,  conscious  thou  canst  not 
raise  them  in  thy  heart  by  natural  powers,  thou 
desirest  some  Scriptural  directions  suitable  to 
thy  case.  Give  me  leave  to  introduce  them  by 
a  few 

Preliminary  Reflections 
On  the  nature  and  depth  of  penitential  sorrow. 

I.  Thou  knowest,  that  "except  thou  [truly] 
repentest,  thou  shalt  [surely]  perish;"  and  that 
there  is  no  true  repentance,  where  there  is  not 
true  sorrow  for  sin,  "  I  rejoice,"  says  St.  Paul 
to  the  Corinthians,  "that  ye  were  made  sorry 
after  a  godly  manner :  for  godly  sorrow  worketh 
repentance  to  salvation,  not  to  be  repented  of; 
but  the  sorrow  of  the  world  worketh  death." 
Hence  it  appears  that  there  are  two  sorts  of 
sorrow,  springing  from  opposite  sources,  God 
and  the  world;  the  one  a  godly  sorrow,  and  the 
other  tlie  sorro^o  of  the  ivorld.  Learn,  then,  to 
distinguish  them  by  their  various  causes  and 
effects ;  so  shalt  thou  avoid  the  danger  of  mis- 
taking the  one  for  the  other. 

The  sorrow  of  the  world,  which  many  cover 


ADDRESS.  9 

with  the  cloak  of  religon,  arises  from  fear  of 
contempt,  dread  of  poverty,  secret  jealousy, 
revenge  dissatisfied,  love  disappointed,  baffled 
schemes,  losses  in  business,  unkindness  of  friends, 
provocation  of  enemies,  or  the  death  of  some 
idolized  relative.  Nay,  this  sorrow  may  some- 
times spring  from  a  mixture  of  self-righteous 
pride  and  slavish  fear.  Some  can  not  bear  to 
be  robbed  of  their  fond  hopes  of  meriting  heaven 
by  their  imaginary  good  works:  they  lose  all 
patience,  when  they  see  their  best  righteousness 
brought  to  light  and  exposed  as  filthy  rags;  they 
are  cut  to  the  heart,  when  they  hear  that  their 
apparent  good  deeds  deserve  punishment,  as 
well  as  their  black  enormities ;  or,  like  con- 
demned malefactors,  they  dread  the  consequences 
of  their  crimes,  while  they  feel  little  or  no  hor- 
ror for  the  crimes  themselves. 

Exceedingly  fatal  are  the  eflfects  of  this  sor- 
row, in  the  persons  whom  it  overcomes ;  their 
indignant  hearts,  unable  to  bear  either  disap- 
pointment, contradiction,  or  condemnation,  rise 
against  second  causes,  or  against  the  decrees  of 
Providence ;  fret  at  the  strictness  of  the  law,  or 
holiness  of  the  Lawgiver,  and  pine  away  with 
uninterrupted  discontent. 

Hence,  spurning  at  advice,  direction,  and  con- 
solation, they  wring  their  hands  or  gnaw  their 
tongues  with  anguish ;  impatience  works  them 
up  into  stupid  sullenness  or  noisy  murmuring ; 
they  complain  that  their  "  punishment  is  greater 
than  they  can  bear;"  and,  imagining  they  are 
more  severely  dealt  with  than  others,  they  hastily 


*  ADDRESS. 

conclude,  "Behold  this  evil  is  from  the  Lord, 
why  should  I  wait  for  him  any  longer?"  Thus 
black  despair  seizes  upon  their  spirits;  and,  if 
grace  does  not  interpose,  they  either  hve  on  to 
fill  up  the  measure  of  their  iniquities,  as  Cain, 
Pharoah,  and  Haman,  or  madly  lay  violent  hands 
upon  themselves,  as  Ahithophel  and  Judas  did. 

This  sorrow  can  not  be  too  much  guarded 
against,  as  it  not  only  destroys  many  persons, 
but  does  immense  hurt  to  religion.  For  those 
who  are  glad  of  any  pretense  to  pour  contempt 
upon  godliness,  taking  occasion  from  the  instances 
of  this  sorrow,  harden  their  own  hearts,  and 
prejudice  all  around  them  against  the  blessed 
godly  sorrow,  which  every  minister  of  the  Gos- 
pel endeavors  to  excite,  maliciously  representing 
it  as  one  and  the  same  with  the  mischievous 
sorrow  of  tlie  world. 

Their  mistake  will  be  evident,  if  we  trace 
godly  sorrow  back  to  its  source.  It  does  not 
spring  merely  from  fear  of  punishment,  but 
chiefly  from  humbling  views  of  God's  holiness, 
the  impurity  of  the  human  nature,  the  exceed- 
ing sinfulness  of  sin,  and  the  transcendent  excel- 
lency of  the  law,  which  condemns  the  sinner. 

And  this  happy  sorrow  differs  not  less  from 
the  other  in  its  effects,  than  it  does  in  its  cause. 
The  persons  who  are  blessed  with  it,  far  from 
murmuring  or  fretting  at  the  Divine  command- 
ment, see  it  to  be  "holy,  just,  and  good,"  both 
in  its  perceptive  and  penal  part.  They  so  abso- 
lutely acquiesce  in  it,  that  they  would  not  alter 
it  if  they  could.     They  clear  God,  accuse  them- 


selves,  subscribe  their  own  sentence,  and  ac- 
knowledge, "  It  is  of  the  Lord's  mercies  that  we 
are  not  consumed."  Each  of  them  can  say, 
"Wherefore  should  a  living  man  complain — a 
man  for  the  punishment  of  his  sins  ?  It  is  good 
that  he  should  both  hope  and  quietly  wait  for 
God's  salvation;  I  will  therefore  watch  to  see 
what  he  will  say  to  me,  for  he  will  speak 
peace  to  his  people."  Thus,  in  a  constant  use 
of  all  the  ordinances  of  God,  they  meekly  wait, 
wrestling  with  their  unbelieving  fears,  till  victo- 
rious "  faith  comes  by  hearing  "  of  the  matchless 
love  of  Jesus  Christ;  and  then,  "fearing  the 
Lord  and  his  goodness,"  they  "sing  the  song  of 
the  Lamb,"  and  run  upon  his  delightful  errands. 

As  thou  seest.  serious  reader,  the  nature, 
necessity,  and  excellence  of  godly  sorrow,  thou 
art  probably  desirous  of  being  informed  how 
deep  thine  must  be,  to  constitute  thee  a  trv£ 
penitent.  Know,  then,  that  it  must  be  deep 
enough  to  imbitter  thy  most  pleasing,  profitable, 
and  habitual  sins,  and  to  prevent  thy  resting 
without  a  clear  sense  of  thy  peculiar  interest  in 
Christ.  It  must  be  profound  enough  to  make 
him  and  his  Gospel  infinitely  precious  to  thee, 
and  to  produce,  under  God,  the  blessed  effects 
mentioned  in  the  fifth  part  of  the  preceding 
treatise. 

To  be  more  particular,  a  true  penitent  may 
certainly,  without  despair  or  madness,  go  as  far 
in  godly  sorrow,  as  David  does  in  his  penitential 
psalms,  or  our  Church  in  the  first  part  of  the 
homily  on  fasting :  "When  good  men,"  says  she. 


9  ADDRESS. 

"feel  in  themselves  the  heavy  burden  of  sin,  see 
damnation  to  be  the  reward  of  it,  and  behold 
with  the  eye  of  their  mind  the  horror  of  hell, 
they  tremble,  they  quake,  they  are  inwardly 
touched  with  the  sorrowfulness  of  heart  for  their 
offenses,  and  can  not  but  accuse  themselves,  and 
open  their  grief  to  almighty  God,  and  call  on 
him  for  mercy.  This  being  done  seriously,  their 
mind  is  so  occupied,  partly  with  sorrow  and 
heaviness,  partly  with  an  earnest  desire  to  be 
delivered  from  this  danger  of  hell  and  damnation, 
that  all  desire  of  meat  and  drink  is  laid  aside, 
and  loathing  of  all  worldly  things  and  pleasures 
comes  in  place ;  so  that  they  like  nothing  better 
than  to  weep,  to  lament,  to  mourn,  and  both 
with  words  and  behavior  of  body,  to  show  them- 
selves weary  of  this  life." 

Nevertheless,  it  must  be  observed  that  godly 
sorrow  needs  not  to  be  equal,  either  in  degree 
or  duration,  in  all  penitents.  Those  whose 
hearts,  through  divine  grace,  open  as  readily 
and  gently  as  that  of  Lydia,  happily  avoid  many 
of  David's  pangs  and  Job's  terrors.  The  pow- 
erful and  instantaneous,  or  the  gentle  and  gradual 
manner,  in  which  souls  are  awakened ;  the  dif- 
ference of  constitutions ;  the  peculiar  services  that 
a  few  are  called  to,  and  for  which  they  are  pre- 
pared by  peculiar  exercises ;  the  horrid  aggrava- 
tions that  have  attended  the  sins  of  some ;  and 
the  severe  correction  which  the  Lord  is  obliged 
to  give  others,  for  their  stout  resistance  against 
his  grace;  all  this  may  help  us  to  account  for 
the  various  depths  of  distress  through   which 


ADDRESS.  T 

different  penitents  pass  in  their  way  to  Christ 
and  salvation. 

The  Lord  does  not  needlessly  afflict  the  chil- 
dren of  men,  any  more  than  a  tender  father 
unnecessarily  corrects  his  disobedient  children : 
he  only  wants  us  to  forsake  our  sins,  renounce 
our  own  imaginary  righteousness,  and  come  to 
Christ  to  be  made  partakers  of  his  merits,  holi- 
ness, and  felicity.  The  sorrow  which  answers 
these  ends  is  quite  sufficient,  though  it  should 
be  ever  so  light,  and  of  ever  so  short  a  duration. 
On  the  contrary,  a  distress  as  heavy  as  that  of 
Judas  is  unavailable,  if,  instead  of  driving  us 
from  sin  to  Jesus  Christ,  it  only  drives  us  from 
profaneness  to  hypocrisy,  or  from  presumption 
to  despair. 

If  still  perplexed,  thou  askest  what  thou  must 
do  to  get  a  sense  of  thy  depravity,  productive 
of  true  repentance,  I  answer,  that  an  affecting 
discovery  of  the  guilt,  nature,  and  danger  of 
sin,  is  only  attained  by  the  assistance  of  God's 
Spirit,  who  alone  effectually  "  convinces  the 
world  of  sin,"  John  xvi,  8.  But  the  Lord  has 
graciously  appointed  means,  in  the  right  use  of 
which  he  never  denies  a  sinner  the  convincing 
and  converting  power  of  his  blessed  Spirit;  and 
what  tliey  are,  thou  art  informed  in  the  following 

Directions, 

Proper  for  a  half-awakened  sinner,  desirous  of 
being  duly  convinced  of  his  corrupt  and  lost 
estate. 
II.  Beware  of  fools,  that  make  a  mock  at 


8  ADDRESS. 

sorrow  for  sin,  and  at  sin  itself.  Beware  -r 
those  "  blind  leaders  of  the  blind,"  who,  "  hav'Sig 
a  form  of  godliness,  deny  the  power  thereof;" 
instead  of  pointing  thee  to  the  throne  of  grace, 
and  bidding  thee  "behold  the  Lamb  of  God, 
that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world,"  they 
will  only  direct  thee  to  the  church  walls  and 
communion  table ;  and,  perhaps,  if  they  see  thee 
under  dejection  of  spirit  for  thy  sins,  they  will 
recommend  the  play-house,  the  card-table,  or 
what  they  call  a  cheerful  glass.  "From  such 
turn  away,"  or  they  will  persuade  thee  that 
repentance  is  melancholy,  conviction  of  sin  de- 
spair, and  the  love  of  God  enthusiasm,  2  Tim. 
iii,  5. 

That  they  may  not  be  able  to  laugh  or  frown 
thee  out  of  the  way  of  salvation,  dwell  in  thy 
thoughts  on  God's  awful  perfections.  "Justice 
and  judgment  are  the  habitation  of  his  throne." 
The  unspotted,  resplendent  holiness  beaming 
forth  from  him,  as  from  an  immensely-glorious 
Sun  of  righteousness,  will  show  thee  thy  sins  as 
innumerable  as  the  flying  motes  discovered  in  a 
dusty  room  where  the  natural  sim  can  penetrate. 
Consider  that  they  are  committed  by  a  worm 
of  earth  against  the  Majesty  of  heaven,  and 
they  will  all  appear  to  be  infinitely  great,  espe- 
cially if  thou  measurest  them  and  thyself  by  the 
true  rule — the  oracles  of  God — casting  away 
the  three  false  standards  which  self-deceivers 
measure  themselves  by;  namely,  the  good  opin- 
ion of  their  worldly-minded  neighbors,  the  de- 
fective examples  of  their  fellow-sinners,  and  the 


ADDRESS.  9t 

flattering  suggestions  of  their  own  blind  self- 
love. 

Follow  the  example  of  the  noble  Bereans: 
"Search  the  Scriptures  daily,  whether  these 
things  are  so,"  Acts  xvii,  11.  View,  in  that 
faithful  mirror,  the  picture  both  of  the  natural 
and  of  the  regenerate  man,  and  ask  thy  con- 
science which  thou  resemblest  most.  If,  imita- 
ting the  godly  man  described  in  the  first  Psalm, 
thou  "meditatest  in  the  law  of  the  Lord  day 
and  night,"  the  straightness  of  the  heavenly  rule 
will  soon  show  thee  how  very  far  gone  thy 
thoughts,  words,  actions,  tempers,  and  nature 
are  from  original  righteousness. 

To  this  meditation  add  a  frequent  suiTey  of 
the  follies  of  thy  childhood,  the  vanity  of  thy 
youth,  the  worldly-mindedness  of  thy  riper 
years,  the  capital  transgressions  which  conscience 
accuses  thee  of,  and  the  "hardness  of  heart," 
and  ahenation  from  the  life  of  God,  that  the 
Scriptures  charge  thee  with.  Confess  all  to  the 
Lord  as  thou  art  able,  remembering  that  "  the 
wages  of  sin  is  death,"  who  flies  fast  upon  thee 
with  the  wings  of  time — death,  who  often  gives 
no  warning,  and  ushers  in  judgment,  with  all  the 
horrors  of  hell,  or  the  joys  of  heaven,  and  pray 
that  these  awful  realities  may  aflfect  thee  now,  as 
they  will  in  thy  last  moments. 

Frequently  reflect,  how  total  must  be  our  loss 
of  spiritual  life,  which  can  not  be  repaired  but 
by  a  resurrection,  a  new  birth,  or  a  new  creation. 
Col.  iii,  1 ;  John  iii,  7 ;  Gal.  vi,  5.  And  how 
desperate  the  disease  of  our  fallen  nature,  which 


lb  ADDRESS. 

can  not  be  healed  but  with  the  blood  of  a  divine 
Physician.  Consider,  attentively  consider  Him, 
whose  piercing  look  softened  the  obdurate  heart 
of  cursing  Peter,  whose  amazing  sufferings 
brought  a  hardened  thief  under  the  deepest 
concern  for  his  salvation,  and  whose  dying  groans 
rent  the  rocks,  shook  the  earth,  and  opened  the 
graves.  The  tender  flower  of  evangelical  sorrow 
grows  best  in  the  shade  of  his  cross ;  a  believing 
view  of  him,  as  suffering  for  thee,  will  melt  thee 
into  penitential  tears,  and  seal  upon  thy  relent- 
ing heart  the  gracious  promise,  "  They  shall  look 
upon  him  whom  they  have  pierced,  and  mourn," 
Zech.  xii,  10. 

In  the  mean  time,  improve  the  daily  oppor- 
tunities which  thou  hast  of  studying  human 
corruption  in  the  life  and  tempers  of  all  around 
thee,  but  chiefly  in  thy  own  careless  and  de- 
ceitful heart;  take  notice  of  its  pride  and  self- 
seeking,  of  its  risings  and  secret  workings,  espe- 
cially when  unexpected  temptations  trouble  thy 
imaginary  peace  of  mind;  for  at  such  a  time 
thy  corruption,  like  the  sediment  in  the  bottom 
of  a  vial  that  is  shaken,  will  show  its  loathsome- 
ness and  strength. 

Converse  frequently,  if  thou  canst,  with  per- 
sons deeply  convinced  of  sin.  Attend  a  plain, 
heart-searching  ministry  as  often  as  possible; 
and  when  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  the  word  of 
God,  pierces  thy  soul,  beware  of  fretful  impa- 
tience. Instead  of  rising  with  indignation  against 
the  preacher,  and  saying,  as  proud  Ahab  did  to 
the  man  of  God,  "Hast  thou  found  me,  O  mine 


ADDRESS.  11 

enemy?"  account  him  thy  best  friend  that 
wounds  the  deepest,  provided  he  brings  thee  to 
Christ  for  a  cure ;  and  when  the  arrows  of  the 
word  fly  abroad,  drop  the  shield  of  unbehef, 
make  bare  thy  breast,  welcome  the  blessed  shaft, 
and  remember,  that  the  only  way  of  conquering 
sin  is  to  fall  wounded  and  helpless  at  the  Re- 
deemer's feet. 

Nevertheless,  the  impressions  of  the  word 
will  soon  wear  oflf,  if  thou  dost  not  importu- 
nately entreat  the  Searcher  of  hearts  to  light  the 
candle  of  his  grace  in  thy  soul,  that  thou  mayest 
clearly  see  whether  thy  inward  parts  are  "  holi- 
ness to  the  Lord,"  as  thou  fondly  supposedst,  or 
very  wickedness,  as  the  Scripture  testifies.  It 
is  only  in  God's  light  that  we  can  clearly  discover 
our  blindness. 

This  light,  it  is  true,  "shineth  in  darkness," 
but  frequently  "the  darkness  comprehendeth  it 
not."  That  this  be  not  thy  dreadful  case,  do 
not  grieve  and  quench  the  convincing  Spirit,  by 
persisting  in  thy  willful  omission  of  any  duty,  or 
deliberate  commission  of  any  sin — nothing  but 
obstinate  unbelief  darkens  the  mind  and  hardens 
the  heart  more  than  this.  Therefore,  instead  of 
burying  thy  one  talent  with  the  slothful  servant, 
earnestly  pray  the  Lord  to  make  thee  faithful  to 
thy  convictions,  and  to  deepen  them  daily,  till 
they  end  in  a  sound  conversion. 

In  order  to  this,  do  not  slightly  heal  the  wound 

in  thy  conscience — it  is  better  to  keep  it  open, 

than  to  skin  it  over  by  improper  means — many, 

through  a  natiiral  frowaxdness  and  impatience, 

15 


12  ADDRESS. 

have  recourse  to  them,  and  ruin  is  the  conse- 
quence of  their  mistake.  That  thou  mayest 
avoid  it,  serious  reader,  I  entreat  thee  to  pay  a 
due  regard  to  the  following 

Cautions, 

Proper  for  a  penitent,  who  desires  to  make  his 

calling  and  election  sure. 

III.  When  thou  hast  affecting  views  of  thy 
lost  estate,  beware  of  resting,  like  Felix,  in  some 
pangs  of  fear,  fits  of  trembling,  and  resolutions 
of  turning  to  God  by  and  by,  when  thou  shalt 
have  a  convenient  season.  Neither  give  place 
to  desponding  thoughts,  as  if  there  were  no  ap- 
peal from  the  tribunal  of  justice  to  the  throne 
of  grace. 

Run  not  for  ease  to  vain  company,  bodily  in- 
dulgence, entangling  affections,  immoderate  sleep, 
excessive  drinking,  or  hurry  of  business.  Cain 
built  a  city  to  divert  his  trouble  of  mind,  and 
multitudes,  like  him,  by  "the  cares  of  this 
world,  the  deceitfulness  of  riches,  or  the  desire 
of  other  things,"  daily  choke  the  good  seed,  the 
precious  word  of  conviction,  Mark  iv,  19. 

Be  not  satisfied  with  faint  desires  of  living  the 
life  of  the  righteous,  or  idle  wishes  of  dying  their 
death.  Remember  that  "  the  desire  of  the 
slothful  kills  him,"  and  if  thou  hast  experienced 
some  drawings  of  grace,  meltings  of  heart,  or 
breathings  after  God,  sit  not  down  at  last,  as  the 
Laodiceans,  in  a  careless  state,  "neither  hot  nor 
cold."  It  is  far  better  to  go  on  thy  way  weep- 
ing, and  seeking  "  the  pearl  of  great  price,"  till 


ADDRESS.  13 

thou  really  find  it,  than  to  rest  contented  with  a 
hasty  conceit  that  thou  art  possessed  of  it,  when 
thou  art  not. 

Stop  not  in  an  outward  reformation,  and  a 
form  of  godliness,  like  many,  who  mistake  the 
means  or  doctrines  of  grace  for  grace  itself,  and 
because  they  say  their  heartless  prayers  both  in 
public  and  private,  or  go  far  and  often  to  hear 
the  Gospel  preached  in  its  purity,  fondly  hope 
tliat  they  are  the  favorites  of  God,  and  in  the 
highway  to  heaven. 

Under  pretense  of  increasing  thy  convictions, 
do  not  bury  them  in  heaps  of  religious  books. 
Some  read  till  their  heads  are  confused,  or  their 
hearts  past  feeling.  Thus,  though  "  ever  learn- 
ing, they  are  never  able  to  come  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  truth."  Hear,  then,  as  well  as  read 
the  word  of  life,  but  think  not  thyself  converted 
when  thou  hast  "received  it  with  joy  :"  the  stony- 
ground  hearers  went  as  far  as  this ;  Herod  him- 
self "  heard  John  gladly,  honored  him,  did  many 
things,"  but  left  the  most  important  undone ;  for 
he  never  dismissed  the  incestuous  woman  he 
lived  with,  and  at  last  sacrificed  to  her  revenge 
the  honest  preacher  he  once  admired. 

Do  not  confound  the  covenant  of  works  made 
with  innocent  Adam  before  the  fall,  and  the 
covenant  of  grace  made  with  sinful  Adam  after 
the  fall,  Gen.  ii,  17,  and  iii,  15,  and  Rom.  v, 
11-21.  They  are  excellent  in  their  place ;  but 
when  they  are  mixed  together,  they  destroy  each 
other's  efficacy.  The  dreadful  thunders  heard  in 
Paradise  Lost,  and  the  melodious  songs  uttered 


14  ADDRESS. 

in  Paradise  Regained,  do  not  strike  at  once  the 
spiritual  ear.  The  galling*  yoke  of  the  law  of 
works,  and  the  heavy  load  of  its  condemnation, 
are  dropped  when  we  take  upon  us  Christ's 
easy  yoke,  and  submit  to  his  light  burden.  In 
a  word,  the  first  Adam  gives  place  to  the  second, 
when  we  "find  rest  unto  our  souls."  Let,  then, 
the  curse  of  the  law  of  innocence  be  swallowed 
by  the  blessing  of  the  Gospel,  or,  rather,  let  it 
make  way  for  the  grace  of  Christ  in  thy  soul,  as 
an  emetic  makes  way  for  a  cordial  m  a  disordered 
stomach.  If  thou  takest  them  together,  their 
respective  use  is  prevented.  The  first  covenant 
loses  its  humbling  efficacy,  and  the  second  its 
restorative  power.  Therefore,  if  thou  hast  really 
"  received  the  sentence  of  death  in  thyself," 
leave  the  curse  of  the  first  covenant  in  the  grave 
of  Christ,  "crucified  for  thy  sins,"  and  welcome 
the  pardoning,  renovating  grace  of  Christ,  "risen 
again  for  thy  justification." 

On  the  other  hand,  rest  not  contented  with 
speculative  knowledge,  and  unafi'ecting,  though 
clear  ideas  of  the  Gospel  way  of  salvation. 
Light  in  an  unrenewed  understanding,  mistaken 
for  "  the  mystery  of  faith  in  a  pure  heart,"  like 
an  ignis  fatuus,  or  false  light,  leads  thousands 
through  the  bogs  of  sin,  into  the  pit  of  destruc- 
tion. Acts  viii,  13. 

Pacify  not  thy  conscience  by  activity  in  out- 
ward services,  and  a  warmth  in  God's  cause ; 
party  spirit,  or  natural  steadiness  in  carrying  on 
a  favorite  scheme,  yea,  or  seeking  thy  own  glory, 
may  be  the  springs  that  set  thee  on  work.     Jehu 


ADDRESS.  15 

faithfully  destroyed  Baal  and  Jezebel,  but  his 
zeal  for  the  Lord  covered  the  secret  desire  of  a 
crown.  Take  care  also  not  to  mistake  gifts  for 
graces,  fluency  of  speech  for  converting  power, 
the  warmth  of  natural  affection  for  divine  love, 
or  an  impulse  of  God's  Spirit,  on  some  particular 
occasion,  for  an  evidence  of  spiritual  regeneration. 
Balaam  spoke  and  prophesied  like  a  child  of  God, 
and  many  will  one  day  say  to  Christ,  "Lord, 
have  we  not  prophesied,  spoke  all  mysteries, 
cast  out  devils,  and  done  many  wonderful  works 
in  thy  name  ?"  to  whom  he  will  answer,  "  De- 
part from  me,  I  know  you  not." 

Avoid  the  self-conceit  of  many  who  feed  on 
the  corrupted  manna  of  their  past  experiences, 
and  confidently  appeal  to  the  wasted  streams  of 
those  consolations  which  once  refreshed  their 
hearts ;  when,  alas !  it  is  evident,  "  they  have 
now  forsaken  the  Fountain  of  living  water,  and 
hewn  to  themselves  broken  cisterns  that  hold  no 
water;"  unless  the  mire  of  evil  tempers,  selfish 
views,  and  heartless  professions  of  faith,  may 
pass  for  "the  streams  which  make  glad  the  city 
of  God." 

Neither  do  thou  heal  thyself  by  touches  of 
sorrow,  by  tears,  good  desires,  or  outward  marks 
of  humiliation  for  sin,  as  King  Ahab.  Nor  by 
excessive  fasting,  retiring  from  business,  or  hard 
usage  of  the  body,  as  many  Roman  Catholics; 
nor  yet  by  misapplying  the  doctrine  of  predesti- 
nation, and  setting  down  notions  of  election  for 
evidences  of  salvation,  as  many  Protestants ;  no, 
nor  by  "doting  about  questions,  strife  of  words. 


16  ADDRESS. 

and  perverse  disputings,  which  eat  as  a  canker," 
as  some  in  St.  Paul's  days,  and  too  many  in 
ours,  1  Tim.  vi,  4. 

To  conclude:  think  not  thou  art  absolutely 
made  whole,  when  the  power  of  outward  sin  is 
weakened  or  suspended,  when  thou  hast  learned 
the  language  of  Canaan,  canst  speak  or  write 
well  on  spiritual  subjects,  art  intimately  ac- 
quainted with  the  best  ministers  of  Christ,  and 
hast  cast  thy  lot  among  the  despised  children  of 
God,  taken  their  part,  shared  in  their  reproach, 
and  secured  their  esteem  and  prayers.  Judas 
did  so  for  years,  Saul  was  once  also  among  the 
prophets,  Ananias  and  Sapphira  were  supposed 
to  be  good  believers  for  a  time,  the  foolish  vir- 
gins joined  in  society  with  the  wise,  and  were, 
perhaps,  unsuspected  to  the  last,  and  Peter  him- 
self stood  in  need  of  conversion,  long  after  he 
had  outwardly  "left  all  to  follow  Christ,"  Luke 
xxii,  32.  So  important  is  that  charge  of  our 
Lord,  "  Strive  to  enter  in  at  the  strait  gate ;  for 
many  will  seek  to  enter  in,  and  shall  not  be 
able." 

To  these  cautions  against  the  various  ways  by 
which  the  generality  of  penitents  skin  over  the 
wound  of  sin  in  their  conscience,  permit  me  to 
add  an 

■Evangelical  Exhortation, 
Pointing  out  the  Divine  method  of  a  sound  cure, 

which,  though  least  regarded,  and  last  tried,  by 

most  sinners,  is  not  only  effectual  in  some,  but 

infallible  in  all  cases. 

IV.  Wouldst  thou,  serious  reader,  be  made 


ADDRESS.  17 

whole  in  an  evangelical  manner?  To  thy  coft- 
victions  of  original  and  actual  sin,  must  be  added 
a  conviction  of  unbelief.  Feel,  then,  that  thou 
hast  neglected  Christ's  great  salvation ;  own  thou 
didst  never  ask,  or  never  persevere  in  asking,  the 
unfeigned,  saving,  powerful  faith,  by  which  the 
atonement  is  received  and  enjoyed,  Rom.  v.  11. 
Acknowledge  that  the  faith  thou  hast  hitherto 
rested  in,  was  not  that  gift  of  God,  that  grace 
"of  his  own  operation,  wrought  in  thee  accord- 
ing to  the  working  of  his  mighty  power,"  and 
mentioned  Eph.  ii,  8;  Col.  ii,  12;  Eph.  i,  19. 
And  confess  it  was  not  the  right  Christian  faith, 
because  it  chiefly  grew  from  the  seed  of  preju- 
dice and  education,  as  the  faith  of  Jews  and 
Turks,  and  not  from  the  seed  of  divine  grace 
and  power,  as  the  faith  of  St.  Paul,  Gal.  i,  15; 
and  because  it  never  yielded  the  heavenly  fruits 
which  Gospel  faith  infalUbly  produces,  such  as  a 
vital  union  with  Christ,  Gal.  ii,  20,  "the  pardon 
of  sins,"  Col.  i,  14;  Acts  xiii,  30;  "peace  with 
God,"  Rom,  V,  1;  "dominion  over  sin,"  Rom. 
vi,  14;  "victory  over  the  world,"  1  John  v,  4; 
"  the  crucifixion  of  the  flesh,"  Gal.  v ;  "  power 
to  quench  the  fiery  darts  of  the  wicked,"  Eph. 
vi,  15  ;  "joy  unspeakable,"  1  Pet.  i,  8;  "and  the 
salvation  of  thy  soul,"  1  Pet.  i,  9;  Heb.  x,  31. 

Be  not  afraid  of  this  conviction  of  unbelief; 
for  it  generally  goes  before  divine  faith,  as  the 
fermentation  of  a  grain  of  corn  in  the  earth  is 
previous  to  its  shooting  its  stalks  toward  heaven. 
"  God  concludes  us  shut  up  in  unbeUef,"  says  St. 
Paul,  "  that  he  may  have  mercy  upon  us,"  Rom. 
2 


t$  ADDRBSe. 

33,  32.  "When  the  Comforter  is  come,"  says 
our  Lord,  "he  will  convince  the  world  of  sin, 
because  they  believe  not  in  me."  This  is  the 
transgression  which  peculiarly  deserves  the 
name  of  sin,  as  being  the  damning  sin  according 
to  the  Gospel,  Mark  xvi,  16 — the  sin  that  binds 
upon  us  the  guilt  of  all  our  other  iniquities,  and 
keeps  up  the  power  of  all  our  corruptions.  Its 
immediate  eifect  is,  to  "  harden  the  heart,"  Mark 
xvi,  14,  and  "  make  it  depart  from  the  living 
God,"  Heb.  iii,  12;  and  this  hardness  and  de- 
parture are  the  genuine  parents  of  all  our  actual 
sins,  the  number  and  blackness  of  which  increase 
and  decrease,  as  the  strength  of  unbelief  grows 
or  decays. 

A  conviction  of  this  sin  is  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance, as  nothing  but  an  affecting  sense  of  its 
heinousness  and  power  can  make  us  entirely 
weary  of  ourselves ;  nothing  but  a  sight  of  its 
destructive  nature  can  prevent  our  resting  with- 
out a  complete  cure. 

But  when  thou  art  once  convinced  of  unbelief, 
do  not  increase  the  difficulty  of  believing,  by  im- 
agining true  faith  at  an  immense  distance — con- 
sider it  as  very  near  thy  heart.  That  which  con- 
vinces thee  of  sin  and  unbelief,  can  in  a  moment, 
and  with  the  greatest  ease,  convince  thee  of  right- 
eousness, and  reveal  in  thee  "Christ,  the  hope 
of  glory."  How  quickly  can  the  Spirit  take  of 
the  things  that  belong  to  him,  and  show  them 
to  thee !  "  Say  not  then  in  thy  heart.  Who  shall 
ascend  into  heaven,  or  descend  into  the  deep," 
to  get  the  seed  of  faith  ?     But  let  St.  Paul  show 


ADDRESS,  19 

thee  "the  new  and  living  way."  "The  word  is 
nigh  thee,"  says  he,  "even  in  thy  mouth  and  in 
thy  heart ;  that  is,  the  word  of  faith  which  we 
preach ;  that  if  thou  shalt  confess  with  thy  mouth 
the  Lord  Jesus,  and  shalt  believe  in  thy  heart 
that  God  hath  raised  him  from  the  dead,  thou 
shalt  be  saved ;  for  we  are  saved  by  faith ;  faith 
cometh  by  hearing,  and  hearing  by  the  word  of 
God.     Hear  then  the  word  of  the  Lord." 

Are  thy  sins  really  grievous  to  thee  ?  Is  the 
burden  of  them  intolerable  ?  Wouldst  thou  part 
with  it  at  any  rate  ?  Dost  thou  fully  renounce 
thy  speculative  and  barren  faith  ?  Hast  thou  re- 
ceived the  sentence  of  eternal  death  in  thy  con- 
science, acknowledging  thy  case — for  any  thing 
thou  canst  do  without  Christ — helpless,  hopeless, 
desperate  ?  And  art  thou  truly  brought  to  the 
grand  inquiry,  "  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ?" 
See,  feel,  confess,  that  thou  standest  in  absolute 
need  of  a  divine  Physician,  an  almighty  Re- 
deemer, and  that  the  God-man,  Jesus  Christ, 
joins  both  these  extraordinary  characters  in  his 
wonderful  person.  Submit  to  be  saved  by  grace, 
by  free  grace,  through  his  infinite  merits,  and 
not  thy  wretched  deserts,  and,  instead  of  oppos- 
ing, continually  study  God's  wonderful  method 
of  saving  sinners,  the  worst  of  sinners,  hy  faith 
in  his  blood. 

There  is  no  name  but  his  under  heaven  whereby 
we  must  be  saved,  neither  is  there  cure  or  salva- 
tion in  any  other,  Acts  iv,  12.  As  by  him  all 
things  were  created,  so  by  him  they  subsist,  and 
by  him  they  must  be  restored.     The  power  of 


SIH  ADDRESS. 

his  word  and  breath  made  man  a  living  soul! 
and  now  that  we  are  dead  to  God,  the  same 
power,  applying  his  blood  and  righteousness,  must 
"  create  in  us  clean  hearts,  and  renew  right 
spirits  within  us."  This,  and  this  only,  heals 
wounded  consciences,  washes  polluted  souls,  and 
raises  the  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins. 

Wouldst  thou,  then,  be  made  whole  ?  Deter- 
mine, as  St.  Paul,  "  to  know  nothing  but  Christ 
and  him  crucified;"  aim  at  believing,  realizing 
applicatory  views  of  what  he  is,  and  what  he 
has  done  and  suflfered  for  thee.  Through  all  the 
clouds  of  thy  guilt  and  unbelief,  which  will  van- 
ish before  our  Sun  of  righteousness,  as  mists 
before  the  material  sun,  "behold  him  as  the 
Lamb  of  God,  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the 
world,"  and  thine.  See  the  immense  dignity  of 
his  person:  "he  is  God  over  all,  blessed  for 
ever,"  and  yet  he  condescends  to  be  "  Immanuel, 
God  with  us,"  flesh  of  our  flesh,  and  bone  of 
our  bone.  Consider  the  inexpressible  value  and 
inconceivable  efficacy  of  his  precious,  all-atoning 
blood.  It  is  the  blood  of  the  sacred  body,  as- 
sumed by  the  eternal  Logos,  when  he  "  appeared 
in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh,  both  as  a  victim 
and  a  priest,  to  suffer  the  penalty  of  his  own 
righteous  law  for  us,  and  to  put  away  sin  by  the 
sacrifice  of  himself,"  the  blood  of  the  Lamb  of 
God,  slain  to  sprinkle  many  nations,  the  blood 
of  that  mysterious  being,  who  "fills  the  bosom 
of  the  Father,"  and  the  everlasting  throne,  at 
whose  feet  all  the  heavenly  powers  cast  their 
crowns,  and  to  whom,  in  the  midst  of  the  ac- 


ADDRESS.  21 

clamations  and  adorations  of  an  innumerable 
company  of  angels,  in  the  midst  of  sounding 
trumpets,  thunderings,  lightnings,  and  voices,  the 
spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect  ascribe  salva- 
tion— free,  full,  immensely  dear-bought  salva- 
tion— and,  to  say  all  in  one  word,  it  is  the  blood 
of  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  Acts  xx,  28  ;  1  Tim. 
iii,  16;  for  Jehovah,  our  righteousness,  is  the 
seed  of  the  woman  and  the  Son  of  man:  the 
Godhead  and  the  manhood  are  wonderfully 
joined  in  him ;  and  in  consequence  of  this  mys- 
terious union,  he  is  not  only  a  proper  "  mediator 
between  God  and  man,"  but  the  sole  medium  of 
reconciliation  and  union  between  the  ofiended 
Majesty  of  heaven  and  the  rebellious  sons  of 
Adam.  As  the  brazen  serpent  lifted  up  in  the 
wilderness,  when  viewed  by  the  wounded  Israel- 
ites, was  the  only  means  by  which  the  poison  of 
the  fiery  serpents  could  be  expelled,  and  health 
restored  to  their  tortured,  dying  bodies,  so  Jesus 
lifted  up  on  the  cross,  when  beheld  by  the  eye 
of  faith  as  bleeding  and  dying  in  our  stead,  is 
the  only  way  by  which  sin,  the  sting  of  death, 
can  be  extracted  out  of  our  guilty,  perishing 
souls,  the  only  antidote  that  can  restore  us  to 
saving  health  and  eternal  life,  John  iii,  14.  Ap- 
ply whatever  we  will,  beside  this  sovereign 
remedy,  we  may  poison,  but  can  never  heal  the 
envenomed  and  mortal  wound. 

But  remember,  sinner,  that  faith  alone  can 
make  the  blessed  application.  Adam  fell  by  re- 
jecting in  unbelief  the  word  of  threatening ;  and 
thou  canst  never  rise,  but  by  receiving  in  faith 


a  A0DRBS8. 

"  the  word  of  reconciliation,"  Gen.  ii,  17 ;  2  Cor. 
V,  19.  Instead,  then,  of  confusing  thy  thoughts, 
and  scattering  thy  desires  by  the  pursuit  of  a 
variety  of  objects,  remember  that  "  one  thing  is 
needful "  for  thee — Christ  and  his  salvation  re- 
ceived by  faith ;  for  to  as  many  as  receive  him, 
he  gives  power  to  become  the  sons  of  G-od, 
"even  to  them  that  believe  on  his  name."  Be- 
seech him,  therefore,  to  manifest  himself  to  thee 
by  his  word  and  Spirit.  "  He  is  the  author  and 
finisher  of  faith,"  the  giver  of  every  good  and 
perfect  gift ;  ask  of  him  a  heart-felt  confidence, 
that  God  so  loved  thee  as  to  give  his  only-begot- 
ten Son,  that  thou  shouldst  not  perish,  but  have 
everlasting  life;  a  firm  confidence  that,  as  the 
first  Adam  willfully  ruined  thee,  so  he,  the  second 
Adam,  freely  loved  thee,  and  gave  himself  for 
thee,  and  that  thou  hast  redemption  through  his 
blood,  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  not  according  to 
thy  merits,  but  the  riches  of  his  grace. 

The  least  degree  of  this  divinely-wrought  con- 
fidence will  begin  to  attract  and  unite  thy  soul  to 
Him,  who  is  our  life  and  peace,  our  strength  and 
righteousness.  The  everlasting  Gospel  will  then 
be  music  in  thine  ears,  and  power  in  thine  heart. 
Its  cheerful,  solemn  sound,  will  raise  thy  droop- 
ing spirits,  and  make  thee  fix  the  eye  of  thy 
mind  on  the  sign  of  the  Son  of  man — the  uplifted 
banner  of  the  cross;  and,  0!  while  the  self- 
righteous  see  nothing  there  but  the  despised,  re- 
jected man  of  sorrows,  what  wilt  thou  discover? 
"  God  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  to  himself! 
God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  to  destroy  the  works 


ADDRESS.  23 

of  the  devil !  Jehovah  Jesus,  the  Captain  of 
our  salvation,  treading  the  wine-press  of  the 
fierceness  of  the  wrath  of  the  Almighty!  Of 
the  people  there  was  none  with  him ;  therefore 
his  own  arm  brought  salvation  to  him !" 

While  the  Gospel  trumpet  is  blown  in  Sion, 
and  the  self-hardened,  scoffing  infidel  hears  it 
with  disdain  and  ridicule,  what  joy  will  the 
awful  declarations  convey  to  thy  penitent  and 
listening  soul!  With  what  rapturous  delight 
wilt  thou  hang  upon  the  lips  of  the  messen- 
gers of  peace,  the  sons  of  consolation,  who 
preach  free  salvation  by  the  blood  of  Jesus, 
while  he  himself,  confirming  the  word  of  his 
servants,  says  to  the  melting  heart,  with  his  still, 
small,  and  yet  powerful,  renovating  voice,  "  Be- 
hold, I  sit  upon  my  throne,  making  all  things 
new — The  words  that  I  speak  are  spirit  and 
life — I  do  not  condemn  thee,  thy  sins  are  for- 
given— Be  thou  clean — Thy  faith  hath  saved 
thee — Go  in  peace,  and  sin  no  more,"  Rev.  xxi, 
5 ;  John  vi,  63 ;  Luke  vii,  48,  50 ;  Matt,  viii,  3 ; 
John  viii,  11. 

,  And,  O !  what  will  thy  believing,  enlarged 
heart  experience  in  that  day  of  God's  power, 
and  thy  spiritual  birth!  Christ,  the  true  light 
of  the  world,  the  eternal  life  of  men,  coming 
suddenly  to  his  temple,  and  filling  it  with  the 
light  of  his  countenance,  and  the  power  of  his 
resurrection ! — Christ  shedding  abroad  in  thy 
ravished  soul  the  love  of  thy  heavenly  Father, 
thy  bitterest  enemies,  and  all  mankind! — ^in  a 
word,  the  Holy  Ghost  given  to  thee !  or,  Christ 


24  ADDRESS. 

dwelling  in  thy  heart  by  faith!  John  i,  4;  1 
John  V,  12  ;  Rom.  viii,  15,  and  v,  5  ;  Gal.  i,  16  ; 
Eph.  i,  13,  and  iii,  17. 

Being  thus  made  partaker  of  Christ,  and  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  Heb.  iii,  14,  and  vi,  4,  thy  lov- 
ing heart,  thy  praising  lips,  thy  blameless  life, 
will  agree  to  testify  that  the  Son  of  man  hath 
power  on  earth  to  forgive  sins,  and  that  if  any 
man  is  in  Christ  he  is  a  new  creature ;  old  things 
are  passed  away ;  behold  all  things  are  become 
new.  Matt,  ix,  6  ;  2  Cor.  v,  IT. 

Till  this  is  thy  happy  experience,  pray — as  the 
drawings  of  the  Father  and  convictions  of  the 
Spirit  will  enable  thee — earnestly  pray  for  living 
faith,  for  a  faith  that  may  be  to  thee  the  sub- 
stance of  the  pardon  thou  hopest  for,  and  the 
evidence  of  the  great  sacrifice  thou  dost  not  see, 
but  which  our  divine  Surety  really  offered  upon 
the  cross  for  thee.  Consider  how  deplorable  a 
thing  it  is,  that  thou  shouldst  be  prevented  from 
claiming,  receiving,  enjoying  the  delightful  knowl- 
edge of  thy  interest  in  the  Redeemer's  death ; 
when  his  pardoning  love,  and  the  word  of  his 
grace,  offer  it  thee  without  money,  and  without 
price;  and  absolutely  nothing  but  infatuating 
unbelief,  or  spiritual  sloth,  keeps  thee  from  the 
invaluable  blessing.  Be  not  satisfied  idly  to  wait 
in  the  divine  ordinances,  till  thou  seest  the  king- 
dom of  God  come  with  power;  but,  as  the  vio- 
lent do,  take  it  by  force. 

Prisoner  of  hope,  be  strong,  be  bold, 
Cast  o£f  thy  doubts,  disdain  to  fear; 
Dare  to  believe,  on  Christ  lay  hold; 


ADDRESS.  25 

Wrestle  with  Christ  in  mighty  prayer; 
Tell  him,  I  will  not  let  thee  go, 
Till  I  thy  name,  thy  nature  know. 

Be  attentive  to  the  calls  of  the  Spirit,  and 
follow  the  drawings  of  the  Father  till  they  bring 
thee  to  the  Son ;  and  keep  thine  eye  upon  the 
dawning  light  of  the  Gospel,  till  the  morning 
star  arise  in  thy  heart.  Venture,  confidently 
venture,  upon  the  boundless  mercy  of  God  in 
Jesus  Christ.  If  a  spirit  of  infirmity  bows  thee 
down,  yield  not  to  it;  seventy  times  seven  times 
try  to  arise  and  look  up,  calling  aloud  for  help 
against  it.  Say,  if  possible,  with  tears,  as  the 
distressed  father  in  the  Gospel,  "  Lord,  I  believe," 
or,  Lord,  I  would  believe,  "  help  thou  my  unbe- 
lief;"  or,  with  tempted  Job,  "Though  thou  slay 
me,  yet  will  I  trust  in  thee." 

In  this  manner  knock,  with  the  earnestness  of 
the  importunate  widow,  till  the  door  of  faith 
open,  and  thou  begin  to  "see  the  salvation  of 
God."  But  stop  not  here  at  the  threshold  of 
Christianity.  "  Have  boldness  to  enter  into  the 
holiest  by  the  blood  of  Jesus.  Go  on  from  faith 
to  faith,  till  thy  day  of  pentecost  is  fully  come, 
till  thou  art  endued  with  power  from  on  high, 
baptized  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire,  and 
sealed  with  that  Holy  Spirit  of  promise  which 
Christ  received  of  the  Father,  and  abundantly 
shed  on  his  servants  and  handmaids  when  he 
was  glorified.  Compare  Matt,  iii,  1 1 ;  Eph.  i, 
13;  John  vii,  39;  Acts  i,  5,  8,  and  ii,  38,  39, 
and  viii,  15,  and  xix,  2 ;  John  vii,  39 ;  Titus  iii,  6. 

In  the  mean  time,  use  all  the  means  of  grace 


:9ft  ADDRESS. 

with  an  eye  to  their  end:  stir  tip  the  gift  of 
hope  that  is  in  thee ;  and,  to  raise  thy  drooping 
expectations,  receive  the  encouraging  testimony 
of  God's  redeemed,  praising  people,  whose 
hearts  and  tongues  are  ready  to  testify  to  thy 
ears,  what  the  following  lines  declare  to  thine 
eyes. 

V.  "  That  which  we  have  seen  and  heard  de- 
clare we  unto  you,  that  ye  also  may  have  fellow- 
ship with  us ;  and  truly  our  fellowship  is  with 
the  Father,  and  with  his  Son,  Jesus  Christ.  For 
the  life  was  manifested,  and  we  have  seen  it, 
and  bear  witness,  and  show  unto  you  that  eternal 
life  which  was  with  the  Father  and  is  mani- 
fested unto  us.  Yes,  we  have  foimd  him  of 
whom  Moses  and  the  prophets  did  write."  From 
blessed  experience  we  declare  that  the  Messiah 
is  come,  that  his  essence  is  love  incarnate,  his 
name  J^ree  Salvation,  and  his  delight  the  eternal 
happiness  of  the  children  of  men.  He  is  the 
chief  among  ten  thousand  prophets,  priests, 
kings,  and  saviors :  he  is  altogether  lovely.  We 
staked  our  souls  upon  his  eternal  truth,  and  it 
was  done  to  us  both  according  to  his  word  and 
our  faith ;  therefore,  with  humble  joy  we  declare 
that  he  answers  the  prayers  and  delivers  the 
souls  of  perishing  sinners,  as  graciously  as  he 
did  in  the  days  of  his  flesh. 

Upon  trials,  a  thousand  times  successfvdly  re- 
peated, we  proclaim  him  the  help  of  the  help- 
less, the  hope  of  the  hopeless,  the  health  of  the 
sick,  the  strength  of  the  weak,  the  riches  of  the 
poor,  the  peace  of  the  disquieted,  the  comfort  of 


ADDRESS.  tf 

the  afflicted,  the  light  of  those  that  sit  in  dark- 
ness, the  companion  of  the  desolate,  the  friend 
of  the  friendless,  the  way  to  the  bewildered,  the 
wisdom  of  the  foolish,  the  righteousness  of  the 
ungodly,  the  sanctification  of  the  unholy,  the 
redemption  of  captives,  the  joy  of  mourners, 
the  glory  of  the  infamous,  and,  in  a  word,  the 
salvation  of  the  lost. 

Though  he  was  the  Creator  of  men  and 
angels,  he  vouchsafed  to  be  born  of  a  woman, 
that  we,  the  wretched  offspring  of  degenerate 
Adam,  might  be  born  again — born  of  God. 
Though  he  had  stretched  forth  the  heavens  like 
a  curtain,  and  bespangled  them  with  stars  innu- 
merable, he  wrapped  himself  in  the  scanty, 
fading  garment  of  our  flesh,  and  put  on  the  vail 
of  our  miserable  humanity,  that  we  might  be 
invested  with  the  glory  and  communicable  per- 
fections of  the  divine  nature.  Though  he  was 
the  King  of  kings,  and  Lord  of  lords,  he  did  not 
disdain  to  take  upon  him  the  form  and  office  of 
a  servant,  that  we  might  be  delivered  from  the 
slavery  of  Satan,  and  that  angels  might  be  sent 
forth  to  minister  for  us,  who  are  the  heirs  of 
salvation.  Though  he  was  the  "  fullness  of  him 
who  fills  all  in  all,"  he  worked  that  we  might 
not  want,  toiled  that  we  might  rest,  and  endured 
hunger  and  thirst,  that  we  might  taste  the  hid- 
den manna,  eat  the  bread  of  life,  and  drink  with 
him  the  mystic  wine  of  his  Father's  kingdom. 
His  omnipotent  word  covers  a  thousand  hills 
with  verdure,  and  clothes  millions  of  creatures 
with  rich  furs,  glittering  scales,  and  shining 
16 


S8  ADDRESS. 

plumage :  but,  0  infinite  condescension !  he  sub- 
mitted to  be  stripped  of  his  plain  raiment,  that 
our  shame  might  not  appear;  he  became  naked, 
that  we  might  be  adorned  with  robes  of  right- 
eousness and  garments  of  salvation.  Though 
his  riches  were  immense  and  unsearchable  like 
himself,  though  heaven  was  his  throne,  and  earth 
his  footstool,  he  became  poor,  and  was  destitute 
of  a  place  where  to  lay  his  head,  that  we  might 
be  rich  in  faith  here,  and  heirs  of  the  kingdom 
hereafter.  Though  he  was,  is  now,  and  ever 
shall  be,  the  joy  of  the  heavenly  powers,  and 
the  object  of  their  deepest  adoration,  he  was 
voluntarily  despised  of  men,  that  we  might  be 
honored  of  God ;  he  was  acquainted,  too,  with 
griefs,  that  we  might  rejoice  with  joy  unspeak- 
able and  full  of  glory.  Though  supreme  Law- 
giver and  Judge  of  all,  matchless  love  made  him 
yield  to  be  judged  and  unjustly  condemned  at 
Pilate's  bar,  that  we  might  be  honorably  acquit- 
ted and  gloriously  rewarded  before  his  awful 
tribunal.  Though  archangels  laid  their  crowns 
at  his  feet,  and  seraphim  vailed  their  faces  before 
him,  unable  to  stand  the  dazzling  effulgence  of 
his  glory,  he  suffered  himself  to  be  derided, 
scoflFed,  spitted  upon,  scourged,  and  crowned 
with  thorns,  that  we  might  be  acknowledged, 
applauded,  embraced,  and  presented  with  never- 
fading  crowns  of  righteousness  and  glory.  The 
Lord  of  hosts  is  his  name;  he  is  deservedly 
called  Wonderful,  Counselor,  the  Everlasting 
Father,  the  Mighty  God,  the  Prince  of  Peace ; 
cherubic  legions  fly  at  his  nod ;  and  yet,  astonisli- 


ADDRESS.  29 

ing  humiliation !  his  shoulders,  on  which  is  laid 
the  government  of  the  world,  felt  the  infamous 
load  of  a  malefactor's  cross;  and  barbarous 
soldiers,  followed  by  an  enraged  mob,  led  him 
as  a  lamb  to  the  slaughter,  that  we  might  be 
delivered  from  the  heavy  curse  of  the  law,  and 
gently  conveyed  by  celestial  powers  into  Abra- 
ham's bosom.  "Let  all  the  angels  of  God 
worship  him,"  is  the  great  decree,  to  which  the 
heavenly  hierarchy  submits,  with  incessant  trans- 
ports of  the  most  ardent  devotion;  and  yet  he 
was  crucified  as  an  execrable  wretch,  guilty  of 
treason  and  blasphemy,  that  we,  daring  rebels 
and  abominable  sinners,  might  be  made  kings 
and  priests  to  God,  partaking  of  his  highest 
glory,  as  he  partook  of  our  deepest  shame ;  and, 
to  crown  his  loving  kindness,  he  expired  in  the 
midst  of  rending  rocks  and  a  supernatural  dark- 
ness, that  we  might  feel  his  tender  mercies  and 
be  indulged  with  the  light  of  heaven,  when  we 
go  through  the  dark  valley  of  the  shadow  of 
death,  to  reap  the  joys  of  eternal  life. 

Survey  this  wondrous  cure. 
And  at  each  step  let  higher  wonders  rise ! 
Pardon  for  infinite  ofi'ense;  and  pardon 
Through  means  that  speak  its  value  infinite! 
A  pardon  bought  with  blood!  with  bluod  Divine! 
With  blood  Divine  of  him  we  made  our  foe! 
Persisted  to  provoke !  though  woo'd  and  awed, 
Bless'd  and  chastised,  bold,  flagrant  rebels  still! 
Bold  rebels  midst  the  thunders  of  his  throne! 
Nor  we  alone!  a  rebel  universe! 
Yet  for  the  foulest  of  the  foul  he  dies. 

But  this  is   not  all:   having,   "through  the 


30  ADDRESS. 

grace  of  God,  tasted  death  for  every  man,"  and 
perfumed  the  grave  for  believers. 

He  rose !  he  rose !  he  broke  the  bar*  of  death. 

O  the  burst  gates!  crush'd  stinff!  demolish'd  throne! 

Last  gasp  of  vanquish'd  death!     Shout,  earth  and  heaven! 

This  sitm  of  good  to  man ;  whose  nature  then 

Took  wing,  and  mounted  with  him  from  the  tomb! 

Then,  then  we  rose!  then  first  humanity, 

Triumphant,  pass'd  the  crystal  gates  of  light. — YoUNG. 

O  the  depth  of  the  mystery  of  faith !  O  the 
breadth,  the  length,  the  hight  of  the  love  of 
Christ!  All  his  stupendous  humiliation,  from 
his  Father's  bosom,  through  the  virgin's  womb, 
to  the  accursed  tree ;  all  his  astonishing  exalta- 
tion, from  the  dust  of  the  grave  to  the  sorrows 
of  hell,  to  the  joys  of  heaven  and  the  highest 
throne  of  glory :  all  this  immense  progress  of 
incarnate  love — all,  all  is  ours  !  His  mysterious 
incarnation  reunites  and  endears  us  to  God ;  his 
natural  birth  procures  our  spiritual  regenera- 
tion ;  his  unspotted  life  restores  us  to  a  blissful 
immortality ;  his  bitter  agony  gives  us  calm  re- 
pose; his  bloody  sweat  washes  away  our  mani- 
fold pollutions ;  his  deep  wounds  distill  the  balm 
that  heals  our  envenomed  sores;  his  perfect 
obedience  is  our  first  title  to  endless  felicity ;  his 
full  atonement  purchases  our  free  justification  ; 
his  cruel  death  is  the  spring  of  immortal  life ; 
liis  grave  the  gate  of  heaven ;  his  resurrection, 
the  pledge  of  glory;  his  ascension,  the  triumph 
of  our  souls ;  his  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of  the 
Majesty  on  high,  the  earnest  of  our  future  coro- 
nation and  exalted  felicity ;  and  his  prevailing 


ADDRESS.  81 

intercession  the  inexhaustible  fountain  of  all  onr 
blessings. 

Come,  then,  conscious  sinner,  come  to  the 
feast  of  pardoning  love ;  taste  with  us  that  the 
Lord  is  gracious.  Let  not  a  false  humility  detain 
thee,  under  pretense  that  "  thou  art  not  yet  hum- 
bled and  broken  enough  for  sin."  Alas!  who 
can  humble  thee,  but  Jesus,  that  says,  "  Without 
me  ye  can  do  nothing  ?"  And  how  canst  thou 
be  broken,  but  by  falling  upon  this  chief  corner- 
stone? If  humiliation  and  contrition  are  parts 
of  the  salvation  which  he  merited  for  thee,  is  it 
not  the  quintessence  of  self-righteousness  to  at- 
tempt to  attain  them  without  him  ?  Away,  then, 
forever  away,  with  such  a  dangerous  excuse. 

Nor  let  the  remembrance  of  thy  sins  keep  thee 
from  the  speediest  application  to  Jesus  for  grace 
and  pardon.  What !  though  thy  crimes  are  of 
the  deepest  dye,  and  most  enormous  magnitude ; 
though  they  are  innumerable  as  the  sands  on  the 
sea-shore,  and  aggravated  by  the  most  uncom- 
mon and  horrid  circumstances,  yet  thou  needest 
not  despair ;  he  has  opened  a  fountain  for  sin  of 
every  kind,  and  uncleanness  of  every  degree ; 
"his  blood  cleanses  from  all  sin." 

He  is  a  Redeemer  most  eminently  fitted,  a 
Savior  most  completely  qualified  to  restore  cor- 
rupt, guilty,  apostate,  undone  mankind;  the 
vilest  of  the  vile,  the  foulest  of  the  foul,  not  ex- 
cepted. He  is  almighty,  and  therefore  perfectly 
able  to  restore  lapsed  powers,  root  up  inveterate 
habits,  and  implant  heavenly  tempers.  He  is 
love  itself:    compassionate,  merciful,   pardoning 


8ft  ADDRESS. 

love  became  incarnate  for  thee.  And  shall  he, 
that  spared  not  his  own  life,  but  delivered  him- 
self up  for  us  all,  shall  he  not  with  his  own 
blood  also  freely  give  us  all  things  ? 

Behold,  O  behold  him  with  the  eye  of  thy 
faith ;  cruelly  torn  with  various  instruments  of 
torture,  he  hangs  aloft  on  the  accursed  tree,  be- 
tween two  of  the  most  execrable  malefactors; 
and  there,  insulted  more  than  they,  he  bears  our 
infamous  load  of  guilt.  He  knows  no  sin,  and 
yet  he  is  made  sin  for  us ;  he  becomes  a  curse, 
to  redeem  us  from  the  curse  of  the  law;  him- 
self bears  our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree ; 
"he  is  wounded  for  our  transgressions,  and 
bruised  for  our  iniquities ;  the  chastisement  of 
our  peace  is  upon  him.  God  hath  laid  on  him 
the  iniquity  of  us  all,  and  with  his  stripes  we  are 
healed." 

See,  PARDON  FOR  LOST  SINNERS  is  Written  with 
pointed  steel  and  streaming  blood,  on  his  pierced 
hands  and  feet!  The  double  flood  issuing  from 
his  wounded  side  more  than  seals  the  dear- 
bought  blessing  ;  the  handwriting  against  us  is 
nailed  to  his  cross,  and  blotted  out  with  his  pre- 
cious blood ;  his  open  arms  invite,  draw,  and 
welcome  returning  prodigals ;  and  there  encir- 
cled, the  worst  of  sinners  may  find  a  safe  and 
J  delightful  retreat,  a  real  and  present  heaven. 

O  sinner !  let  thy  heart  fly  thither  on  the 
wings  of  eager  expectation  and  impetuous  desire. 
By  all  that  is  near,  dear,  and  sacred  to  thee, 
fly — fly  from  eternal  death — fly  for  eternal  life. 


ADDRESS.  33 

The  law,  violated  by  ten  thousand  transgressions, 
pursues  thee  with  ten  thousand  curses ;  the 
sword  of  divine  vengeance  flames  over  thy  de- 
voted head;  sin,  the  sting  of  death,  has  been  a 
thousand  times  shot  into  thy  wretched  breast; 
its  subtile  and  dire  poison  continually  works  in 
thy  hardened  or  distressed  heart;  guilt,  the 
sting  of  sin,  the  never-dying  worm,  perpetually 
benumbs  thy  stupid  soul,  or  gnaws  thy  restless 
conscience  ;  raging  lusts,  those  sparks  of  the  fire 
of  hell,  which  nothing  but  the  blood  of  the  cross 
can  quench  ;  our  fierce  passions,  those  flashes  of 
infernal  lightning,  that  portend  an  impending 
storm,  frequently  break  out  in  thy  benighted 
soul,  a  heart-felt  pledge  of  tormenting  flames; 
Satan,  whom  thou  hast,  perhaps,  invoked  by 
horrid  imprecations,  goes  about  as  a  roaring  lion, 
seeking  to  insnare  his  careless  votary,  or  to  de- 
vour his  desperate  worshiper;  death  levels  his 
pointed  spear  at  thy  thoughtless  or  throbbing 
heart ;  hell  itself  is  moved  from  beneath,  to  meet 
thee  at  thy  coming ;  and  the  grave  gapes  at  thy 
feet,  ready  to  close  her  hideous  mouth  upon  her 
accursed  prey. 

Fly,  then,  miserable  sinner,  if  thy  flesh  is  not 
brass,  and  thou  canst  not  dwell  with  everlasting 
burnings,  fly  for  shelter  to  the  bloody  cross  of 
Jesus.  There  thou  wilt  meet  him  who  was,  and 
is,  and  is  to  come ;  Immanuel,  God  with  us,  who 
appeared  as  the  Son  of  man,  to  make  his  soul 
an  off"ering  for  sin,  for  thy  sin;  and  saved  thy 
life  from  destruction,  by  losing  his  own  in  pangs 
3 


M 


ADDRESS. 


which  made  the  sun  turn  pale,  shook  the  earth, 
and  caused  the  shattered  graves  to  give  up  their 
dead ! 

He  is  even  now  near  to  thy  heart ;  he  stands 
at  the  door,  and  gently  knocks  by  the  word  of 
his  grace.  If  thou  hearest  his  voice,  and  open- 
est  by  believing,  he  will  come  in,  the  word  of 
reconciliation  shall  be  powerfully  ingrafted  into 
thy  heart,  and  thou  shalt  know,  experimentally 
know,  the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make  thee 
free.  Assured  that  he  hath  by  himself  purged 
thy  sins,  abolished  death,  and  brought  life  and 
immortahty  to  light  through  the  Gospel,  thou 
shalt  sup  with  him  and  he  with  thee ;  thou  shalt 
eat  the  bread  of  God,  which  came  down  from 
heaven  to  give  life  to  a  perishing  world.  Evan- 
gelical truth,  received  by  faith,  will  heal,  nourish, 
comfort,  and  sanctify  thy  soul. 

But  perhaps  thy  guilty  heart  receives  no  con- 
solation from  these  lines.  Thou  still  considerest 
Christ  only  as  a  severe  lawgiver,  or  as  an  inflex- 
ible judge,  and  not  as  the  propitiation  for  thy 
sins,  and  thy  gracious,  all- prevailing  Advocate 
with  the  Father.  0 !  how  dost  thou  wrong  both 
him  and  thyself  by  such  false  conceptions !  And 
how  soon  would  thy  gloomy  fears  give  place  to 
triumphant  joy,  if  thy  thoughts  of  him  corres- 
ponded with  his  gracious  designs  concerning 
thee! 

Wouldst  thou  know  him  better,  behold  him 
through  the  glass  of  his  word,  and  not  through 
the  mist  of  thy  fears ;  and  thou  wilt  see  that,  far 
from  watching  over  thee  for  evil,  he  fixes  upon 


ADDRESS.  35 

thee  the  piercing  eye  of  his  redeeming  love, 
waits  that  he  may  be  gracious  to  thy  soul,  and 
calls,  continually  calls  for  thee !  O !  if  thou 
hast  an  ear,  listen ;  and  as  thou  listenest,  wonder 
at  the  kind,  reviving  words  which  proceed  out  of 
his  mouth. 

VI.  *  "  Comfort  ye,  comfort  ye  my  people, 
says  the  Lord ;  speak  ye  comfortably  to  Jerusa- 
lem, and  cry  unto  hei-,  that  her  warfare  is  accom- 
plished, and  her  iniquity  is  pardoned ;  for  in  me 
she  hath  received  of  the  Lord's  hand  double  for 
all  her  sins :  he  is  well  pleased  for  my  righteous- 
ness' sake;  I  have  magnified  the  law,  and  made 
it  honorable :  I  have  been  lifted  up,  and  now  I 
draw  all  men  unto  me.  My  delights  are  with 
the  sons  of  men,  and  therefore  am  I  exalted, 
that  I  may  have  mercy  upon  them.  Behold,  I 
come  with  a  strong  hand,  my  reward  is  with  me, 
and  my  work  before  me.  Every  valley  shall  be 
exalted,  every  mountain  and  hill  shall  be  made 
low;   the  crooked   shall  be  made  straight,  and 

*  This  part  of  the  Address  is  almost  literally  transcribed 
from  the  Scripture:  and  it  is  designed  for  none  but  mourn- 
ers in  Sion,  dejected  sinners,  who  are  backward  to  come  to 
Christ,  that  they  may  have  life.  These  want  line  upon  line, 
and  invitation  upon  invitation;  and  it  is  well  if,  after  all, 
they  are  encouraged  to  come.  As  for  full  souls,  I  know 
they  will  loathe  this  honeycomb.  But  while  they  complain, 
"it  has  too  many  cells,  and  they  are  filled  with  the  same 
thing,"  some  poor  hungry  hearts  will  say.  One  thing-  is 
nee^^l  for  us.  We  can  not  have  too  much  virgin  honey ; 
its  sweetness  makes  amends  for  the  want  of  variety.  If  tne 
manna  falls  abundantly  round  our  tents,  it  will  stir  us  up  to 
praise,  and  not  to  murmur.  Fullness  of  the  bread  of  life 
will  not  make  us  wax  fat  and  kick,  like  Jeshurun,  but  bless 
God  for  his  rich  profusion;  with  the  disciples,  we  shall  even 
gather  up  the  fragments,  that  nothing  be  lost. 


36  ADDRESS. 

the  rough  places  plain;  my  glory  shall  be  re- 
vealed, and  all  flesh  shall  see  it  together. 

"  Hearken  unto  me,  ye  stout-hearted,  that  are 
far  from  righteousness;  I  bring  near  my  right- 
eousness, it  shall  not  be  far  off,  and  my  salvation 
shall  not  tarry.  Seek  ye  me  while  I  may  be 
found — call  upon  me  while  I  am  near;  return 
unto  me,  and  I  will  have  mercy  upon  you;  and 
though  ye  have  only  done  evil  before  me  from 
your  youth,  I  will  abundantly  pardon:  for  my 
thoughts  are  not  revengeful  as  your  thoughts, 
nor  my  ways  unloving  as  your  ways ;  in  me  ye 
shall  be  saved  with  an  everlasting  salvation," 

"  Come,  therefore,  unto  me,  all  ye  that  travail 
and  are  heavy-laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest: 
my  yoke  is  easy,  my  burden  light,  and  ray  rest 
glorious.  Ho!  every  one  that  thirsteth,  come 
ye  to  the  waters ;  and  he  that  hatli  no  money, 
come  ye,  buy  and  eat,  all  that  can  revive, 
strengthen,  and  delight  your  souls;  yea,  come, 
buy  wine  and  milk,  without  money  and  without 
price.  Wherefore  do  ye  spend  your  money  for 
that  which  is  not  bread,  and  your  labor  for  that 
which  satisfieth  not?  Hearken  diligently  unto 
me,  eat  that  which  is  good,  and  let  your  soul 
delight  itself  in  fatness.  Incline  your  ear,  and 
come  unto  me ;  hear,  and  your  soul  shall  live :  I 
will  make  an  everlasting  covenant  with  you,  even 
the  sure  mercies  of  David ;  and  you  shall  all 
know  me,  from  the  least  to  the  greatest;  for  I 
will  forgive  your  iniquity,  and  remember  your 
sin  no  more. 

"0!    if   thou    knewest    the    gifts   of   God, 


ADDRESS.  37 

wretched  sinner,  and  who  it  is  that  saith  unto 
thee,  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him  come  unto  me 
and  drink,  thou  wouldst  have  asked  of  him,  and 
he  would  have  given  thee  hving  water ;  a  well, 
a  fountain  of  it  would  have  sprung  up  in  thee 
unto  everlasting  life ;  yea,  out  of  thy  belly,  thy 
inmost  soul,  rivers  of  living  water,  the  greatest 
abundance  of  the  purest  joy,  would  have  flowed 
forever.  I,  even  I,  am  he  that  blotteth  out  thy 
transgressions,  for  my  own  sake,  and  will  not 
remember  thy  sins :  I  will  guide  thee  continually, 
and  satisfy  thy  soul  in  drouth  ;  and  thou  shalt 
be  like  a  watered  garden,  or  like  a  spring  of 
water  whose  waters  do  not  fail. 

"  0  how  often  would  I  have  gathered  thee  in 
years  past,  as  a  hen  gathers  her  brood  under  her 
wings !  How  often  would  I  have  led  thee,  as 
an  eagle  fluttereth  over  her  young,  spreadeth 
abroad  her  wings,  taketh  them  and  beareth  them, 
but  thou  wouldst  not.  Nevertheless,  this  is  still 
the  day  of  my  power,  mercy,  and  love :  I  par- 
don those  whom  I  reserve,  and  I  will  yet  be 
pacified  toward  thee,  for  all  that  thou  hast  done  ; 
1  was  angry  with  thee,  but  my  anger  was  turned 
away,  my  thoughts  toward  thee  are  thoughts  of 
peace,  and  I  am  become  thy  salvation.  Come, 
then,  let  us  now  reason  together,  and  though 
thy  sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  as  white  as 
snow;  though  they  be  red  like  crimson,  they 
shall  be  as  wool." 

Why  does  not  thy  drooping  heart,  0  sinner, 
leap  for  joy,  or  melt  with  gratitude,  at  these 
tender  invitations  of  thy  Savior  ?     Thinkest  thou 


99  ADDRESS. 

they  do  not  belong  to  thee  ?  Dost  thou  suppose 
Jesus,  who  is  all  purity  and  holiness,  must  turn 
away  with  abhorrence  from  such  a  guilty,  pollu- 
ted, and  abominable  creature  as  thou  art  ?  One 
so  void  of  all  good,  so  full  of  evil,  so  completely 
lost  and  undone  as  thou  seest  thyself?  Art 
thou  afraid  that  thy  relapses  into  sin  have 
been  so  frequent,  and  thy  backslidings  so  multi- 
plied, that  hope,  which  comes  to  all,  can  no 
more  come  to  thee  ?  Or  does  the  enemy  of  thy 
soul  suggest  thou  art  careless,  hardened,  and 
sunk  in  stupid  unbelief?  Does  he  insinuate, 
thou  hast  so  long  trifled  with  divine  grace,  art 
gone  such  lengths  in  horrid  wickedness,  or  hast 
contracted  such  unconquerable  habits  of  indulg- 
ing thy  carnal  mind,  or  following  thy  vain 
imaginations,  that  infinite  mercy  can  no  longer 
pardon  thy  sins,  or  infinite  power  change  thy 
nature  ?  Art  thou  even  tempted  to  believe  thou 
hast  committed  the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  art  almost,  if  not  altogether,  given  up  to  a 
reprobate  mind?  0  check  those  gloomy,  de- 
spairing thoughts;  resist  the  devil,  and  give 
place  to  more  true  and  honorable  sentiments  of 
Jesus ! 

Wherefore  dost  thou  doubt,  O  thou  of  httle 
faith  ?  Is  any  thing  too  hard  for  the  Lord  ? 
Are  not  all  things  possible  with  God  ?  Can  the 
Almighty,  who  became  incarnate  to  die  as  man 
in  thy  place,  want  either  ability  or  willingness  to 
help  thee,  be  thy  case  ever  so  deplorable  and 
desperate  ?  Is  not  darkness  or  light,  sickness 
or  death,  all  one  to  him,  who  is  the  light  of  the 


ADDRESS.  39 

world,  and  the  Prince  of  life;  and  who,  with  a 
word  or  a  touch,  raised  the  dead,  whether  they 
were  yet  warm  on  a  bed,  or  cold  in  a  coffin,  or 
already  putrefied  in  a  grave? 

Confine  not,  then,  poor,  dejected  sinner,  thy 
Savior's  boundless  mercy  within  the  narrow  hmits 
of  thy  unbelieving  thoughts.  Get  Scriptural 
views  of  his  pardoning  love,  and  true  discoveries 
of  his  redeeming  power.  To  guess  aright  at  the 
prodigious  extent  of  his  mercy,  lift  up  the  dim 
eyes  of  thy  struggling  faith,  and  behold  a  great 
multitude,  which  no  man  can  number,  standing 
before  the  throne,  with  their  robes  washed,  and 
made  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb. 

Among  those  countless  monuments  of  divine 
mercy,  those  illustrious  trophies  of  free  grace, 
see  David,  who,  after  having  been  admitted  to 
close  communion  with  God,  plunged  for  ten 
months  in  the  horrible  guilt  of  adultery,  treach- 
ery, hypocrisy,  and  murder!  See  Paul,  once 
so  fierce  an  enemy  to  the  truth,  so  fiery  a  blas- 
phemer of  Jesus,  so  raging  a  persecutor  of  the 
saints,  that  his  very  breath  was  threatenings  and 
slaughter  against  them!  See  Peter,  who,  after 
a  great  profession  of  faithfulness,  and  upon  an 
apparently-slight  temptation,  denied  three  times 
his  Master,  his  Savior,  and  his  God,  in  his  very 
presence;  Peter,  guilty  of  lying,  cursing,  and 
perjury,  immediately  after  he  had  been  apprised 
of  the  imminent  temptation,  and  armed  against 
it,  both  by  receiving  the  holy  sacrament  at  our 
Lord's  own  hand,  and  being  admitted  to  see  his 
wonderful  agony,  and  glorious  miracles.    These, 


40  ADDRESS. 

and  thousands  more,  agree  to  tell  thee,  "For 
this  cause  we  obtain  mercy,  that  in  us  Jesus 
Christ  might  show  forth  all  long-suffering,  for  a 
pattern  to  them  which  should  hereafter  believe 
on  him  to  life  everlasting." 

If  all  these  witnesses  do  not  silence  thy 
doubts,  and  encourage  thy  hopes,  Jesus  himself, 
the  faithful  and  true  witness,  will  yet  plead  the 
cause  of  his  dying  love,  against  thy  unbeheving 
fears:  thy  gracious  Advocate  with  God  will  yet 
be  God's  condescending  Advocate  with  thee. 
0,  let  thy  clamorous  conscience  keep  silence, 
while  he  preaches  to  thee  the  everlasting  Gospel 
of  his  grace!  And  if  to-day  thou  hearest  his 
voice,  harden  not  thy  heart ;  come  out  of  the 
cave  of  unbelief,  wrap  thyself  in  the  mantle  of 
divine  mercy,  and  worship  the  pardoning  God, 
the  God  of  never-failing  truth  and  everlasting 
love. 

Gracious  Savior !  make  thine  own  words  spirit 
and  life  to  the  soul  thou  hast  formed  by  thy 
breath,  and  purchased  with  thy  blood.  Blessed 
Comforter !  while  thy  precious  sayings  strike  the 
eyes  of  this  hopeless  reader,  let  the  love  which 
thou  sheddest  abroad  soften,  melt,  and  revive 
his  poor,  oppressed  heart,  and  let  salvation  come 
this  day  to  the  house  of  a  son  or  daughter  of 
Abraham !  A  touch,  a  breath  from  thee,  will 
break  the  bars  of  iron,  burst  the  gates  of  brass, 
and  make  the  everlasting  doors  lift  up  their 
heads,  that  the  King  of  glory  may  come  in. 

"Who  is  the  King  of  glory?  Who  is  this 
that  Cometh   from  Edom,  with  dyed  garments 


ADDRESS.  41 

from  Bozrah?  This  that  is  glorious  in  his  ap- 
parel, traveling  in  the  greatness  of  his  strength  ? 

"  I  that  speak  in  righteousness,  mighty  to  save. 
I  have  trodden  the  wine-press  alone,  mine  own 
arm  hath  brought  salvation  unto  me,  salvation  to 
the  lost :  it  is  gone  forth ;  my  righteousness  is 
near ;  the  isles  shall  wait  on  me,  and  on  my  arm 
shall  they  trust.  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  God  is 
upon  me  :  he  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  good 
tidings  to  the  meek  ;  he  hath  sent  me  to  bind  up 
the  broken-hearted,  to  proclaim  liberty  to  the 
captives,  and  the  opening  of  the  prison  to  them 
that  are  bound,  to  comfort  all  that  mourn,  and 
by  the  blood  of  the  covenant  to  send  forth  the 
prisoners  out  of  the  pit  where  is  no  water. 

"  Fear  not,  therefore,  thou  worm  Jacob ;  I  am 
the  first  and  the  last,  he  that  liveth  and  was  dead, 
and  behold,  I  am  alive  for  evermore.  Yes,  I  ever 
live  to  make  intercession  for  thee;  and  because  I 
live,  thou  shalt  live  also.  All  power  is  given,  all 
judgment  is  committed  to  me  in  heaven  and 
earth  :  I  have  the  keys  of  death  and  hell :  a  Jo- 
nah, who  cries  to  me  out  of  the  very  belly  of 
hell,  is  not  out  of  the  reach  of  my  gracious  and 
omnipotent  arm. 

"Who  art  thou  that  hast  feared  continually 
every  day,  because  of  the  fury  of  the  oppressor, 
as  if  he  were  ready  to  destroy  ?  I,  even  I,  am 
he  that  comforteth  thee.  I  bring  glad  tidings 
of  great  joy,  which  shall  be  to  all  people.  I 
have  triumphed  over  all  thine  enemies  on  the 
cross.  I  have  led  captivity  captive,  and  received 
gifts  for  men,  even  the  promise  of  the  Father, 


42  ADDRESS. 

that  the  Lord  God  the  Spirit  may  dwell  in  them. 
At  my  command  the  great,  the  evangelical 
trumpet  is  blown,  and  they  that  are  ready  to 
perish  in  the  land  of  Assyria,  and  the  outcasts 
in  the  land  of  Egypt,  do  come,  and  are  welcome 
to  Mount  Sion.  Hasten  with  them,  thou  captive 
exile,  hasten  to  me,  that  thou  may  est  be  loosed, 
and  that  thou  shouldst  not  die  in  the  horrible  pit 
of  thy  natural  state. 

"Thy  helplessness  is  no  hinderance  to  my  lov- 
ing kindness :  I  break  not  the  bruised  reed,  I 
quench  not  the  smoking  flax :  I  uphold  all  that 
fall,  I  raise  up  all  those  that  are  bowed  down :  I 
say  to  the  prisoners.  Go  forth ;  and  to  them  that 
are  in  darkness,  Show  yourselves :  I  strengthen 
the  weak  hands,  and  confirm  the  feeble  knees :  I 
say  to  them  that  are  of  a  fearful  heart,  Be 
strong,  fear  not ;  behold,  1  will  come  with  ven- 
geance and  a  recompense ;  I  will  come  and  save 
you. 

"My  tender  mercies  are  over  all  my  works. 
Wlien  the  poor  and  needy  seek  water,  and  there 
is  none,  and  their  tongue  faileth  for  thirst,  I  the 
Lord  will  hear  them;  I  the  God  of  Israel  will 
not  forsake  them :  I  will  open  rivers  in  high 
places;  I  will  make  the  wilderness  a  pool,  and 
the  dry  land  springs  of  water. 

"It  is  true  thou  hast  sinned  with  a  high  hand, 
both  against  thy  light,  and  against  my  love ;  but 
how  shall  I  give  thee  up,  Ephraim?  How  shall 
I  deliver  thee,  sinner  ?  How  shall  I  make  thee 
as  Admah,  and  set  thee  as  Zeboim,  those  rebel- 
lious cities  on  which  I  poured  my  flaming  ven- 


ADDRESS.  43 

geance  ?  My  heart  is  turned  within  me,  my  re- 
pentings  are  kindred  together :  I  will  not  destroy 
thee ;  for  I  am  God,  and  not  man :  I  have  seen 
thy  ways,  and  will  heal  and  lead  thee,  and  re- 
store comfort  to  thee,  for  I  create  the  fruit  of 
the  lips.  Peace !  peace  to  him  that  is  afar  off, 
and  to  him  that  is  near ;  I  will  heal  him. 

"Thou  hast  not  chosen  me,  but  I  have  chosen 
thee;  thou  art  my  servant;  fear  not,  for  I  am 
with  thee:  be  not  dismayed,  for  I  am  thy  God. 
My  strength  is  sufficient  for  thee ;  I  will  help 
thee ;  yea,  I  will  uphold  thee  with  the  right  hand 
of  my  righteousness.  They  that  war  against 
thee  shall  be  as  nothing ;  for  I,  the  Lord  thy 
God,  will  hold  thy  right  hand,  and  make  my 
strength  perfect  in  thy  weakness.  I  will  bring 
thee  by  a  way  thou  hast  not  known.  I  will 
make  darkness  light  before  thee,  and  crooked 
paths  straight:  when  thou  passest  through  the 
waters,  I  will  be  with  thee,  and  when  thou 
walkest  through  the  fire,  thou  shalt  not  be 
burned,  neither  shall  the  flame  kindle  upon  thee ; 
for  I  am  the  Lord  thy  Savior,  and  thy  God.  I 
have  carried  thee  from  the  womb,  and  even  to 
hoary  hairs  will  I  bear  and  deliver  thee. 

"Therefore,  hear  now  this,  thou  afflicted  and 
drunken,  but  not  with  wine ;  I  will  not  contend 
forever,  neither  will  I  be  always  wroth,  for  the 
spirit  should  fail  before  me,  and  the  soul 
which  I  have  made.  I  turn  the  water  of  afflic- 
tion into  the  wine  of  consolation.  Behold,  I 
take  out  of  thy  hand  the  cup  of  trembling,  even 
the  dregs  of  the  cup  of  my  fury ;  thou  shalt  no 
17 


44  ADDRESS. 

more  drink  it  again ;  I  will  put  it  into  the  hand 
of  them  that  afflict  thy  soul:  and,  in  the  room 
of  it,  I  give  thee  the  cup  of  the  New  Testament 
in  my  blood  shed  for  the  remission  of  sins :  it  is 
now  ready ;  draw  near,  drink  thou  of  it,  and 
taste  that  I  am  gracious. 

"Come  near,  that  I  may  speak  a  word  in 
season  to  thy  weary  spirit.  Why  standest  thou 
afar  off?  Come  near,  I  say,  that  my  soul  may 
bless  thee.  Let  me  show  thee  my  glory,  and 
proclaim  my  soul-reviving  name — the  Lord !  the 
Lord  God !  merciful  and  gracious,  long  suffer- 
ing, and  abundant  in  goodness  and  truth,  keep- 
ing mercy  for  thousands,  and  forgiving  iniquity, 
transgression,  and  sin.  Let  me  wash  thy  heart 
from  iniquity,  guilty  sinner;  for  unless  I  wash 
thee,  thou  hast  no  part  with  me.  Unless  thou 
art  born  again  of  water  and  of  the  Spirit,  thou 
canst  not  see  the  kingdom  of  God.  But  this  is 
the  covenant  of  promise  which  I  make  with  thee : 
I  will  sprinkle  clean  water  upon  thee  and  thou 
shalt  be  clean ;  a  new  heart  will  I  give  thee,  and 
a  new  spirit,  even  my  own  Spirit,  will  I  put  within 
thee,  and  thou  shalt  be  completely  born  of  God  ; 
and  at  that  day  thou  shalt  know  that  I  am  in  the 
Father,  and  thou  in  me,  and  I  in  thee. 

"Who  is  he  that  condemneth?  It  is  I  who 
died  for  thy  sins ;  yea,  rather,  Avho  rose  again 
for  thy  justification,  who  am  even  at  the  right 
hand  of  God,  who  also  make  intercession  for 
thee.  The  same  compassionate  love  that  made 
me  weep  over  ungrateful  Jerusalem,  and  groan 
over  dead  Lazarus,  made  me  bleed  and  die  for 


ADDRESS.  45 

thee.  0  that  in  this  thy  day,  thou  mayest  know 
the  things  that  belong  unto  thy  peace,  and  the 
efficacy  of  that  sacrifice,  by  which  I  have  for- 
ever perfected  them  that  are  sanctified !  O  that 
unbehef,  so  injurious  to  me,  and  so  pernicious  to 
thee,  may  no  longer  hide  my  love  from  thine  eyes ! 

"What!  afraid  of  my  purity,  art  thou  ready 
to  cry  out  as  my  apostle.  Depart  from  me,  O 
Lord,  for  I  am  a  sinful  man  ?  And  dost  thou 
tremble  at  my  words,  as  a  criminal  at  the  sen- 
tence of  his  judge?  0,  be  of  good  cheer;  it  is 
I,  be  not  afraid.  Am  not  I  thy  light  and  strength, 
thy  shield  and  buckler,  thy  tower  and  resting- 
place,  thy  stronghold  whereunto  thou  mayest 
always  resort,  thy  castle  and  fortress,  the  horn 
also  of  thy  salvation  and  thy  refuge  ?  As  for  thy 
sins,  if  thou  desirest  to  part  with  them,  they 
will  no  more  hinder  me  from  visiting  thee,  than 
the  sickness  of  a  patient  prevents  a  physician 
from  giving  him  his  attendance. 

"  I  know  thou  art  a  sinner,  a  great  sinner :  for 
this  cause  came  I  down  from  heaven  to  Beth- 
lehem, to  Gethsemane,  to  Calvary.  I  know 
thine  iniquities  are  more  in  number  than  the 
hairs  of  thy  head ;  like  a  sore  burden,  they  are 
too  heavy  for  thee  to  bear:  and,  therefore,  have 
I  borne  them  for  thee,  in  my  own  body  on  the 
tree.  I  came  not  to  call  the  righteous  but  sin- 
ners to  repentance ;  I  am  the  man  that  receiveth 
sinners,  and  eateth  with  them ;  1  am  the  friend 
of  returning  publicans  and  harlots ;  all  manner 
of  sins  and  blasphemies  shall  be  forgiven  them 
through  faith  in  my  blood ;  God  was  in  me  rec- 


401  ADDRESS. 

onciling  the  world  unto  himself,  not  imputing 
their  trespasses  unto  them ;  and  now,  I  beseech 
thee,  be  thou  [for  one]  reconciled  to  God ;  for  in 
me  God  is  reconciled  to  tliee;  thy  sin  is  covered, 
and  thine  iniquity  forgiven. 

"  Great  as  thy  crimes  are,  poor  mourner  in 
Zion,  I  upbraid  thee  not  with  them :  my  infin- 
itely-meritorious sacrifice  hath  long  ago  atoned 
for  their  heinousness,  and  now  I  cast  the  mantle 
of  my  pardoning  love  over  their  multitude :  thou 
art  ashamed  of  them,  and  shall  I  be  ashamed  of 
thee?  Far  be  the  thought  from  thee.  I  glory 
in  extending  my  boundless  mercy  to  such  miser- 
able objects  as  thou  art.  This  is  a  faithful  say- 
ing, and  worthy  of  all  men  to  be  received,  that 
I  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners ;  and  if, 
with  my  servant  Paul,  thou  seest  thyself  the  chief 
of  them,  let  me  do  the  chief  part  of  the  errand 
on  which  I  came;  look  unto  me,  and  partake 
with  him  of  my  richest  salvation ;  lose  thy  cares 
in  the  bosom  of  my  mercy,  and  receive  the  atone- 
ment I  made  for  thee ;  but  receive  it  now:  for  I 
have  heard  thee  in  a  time  accepted,  and  in  the 
day  of  salvation  have  I  succored  thee:  behold, 
now  is  the  accepted  time:  behold,  now  is  the 
day  of  salvation;  the  day  in  which  I  bind  up 
the  breach  of  my  people,  and  heal  the  stroke  of 
their  wound. 

"  Whence  arise,  O  poor  sinner,  thy  backward- 
ness and  misgivings?  I  have  ransomed  thee 
from  the  power  of  the  grave,  and  thou  art  mine : 
I  come  to  heal  thee,  and  reveal  to  thee  the 
abundance  of  peace  and  truth :  I  bring  thee  a 


ADDRESS.  41 

cure  for  thy  wounded  conscience,  and  saving 
health  for  thy  sin-distempered  soul ! 

"In  a  little  wrath,  and  for  a  small  moment,  I 
have  hid  my  face  from  thee ;  but  with  everlast- 
ing kindness  will  I  have  mercy  on  thee,  for  I  am 
the  Lord  thy  Redeemer.  Believe  it,  and  faith 
will  work  by  love,  and  love  will  cast  out  fear : 
thus  shalt  thou  take  hold  of  my  strength,  that 
thou  mayest  make  peace  with  me;  and  thou 
shalt  make  peace  with  me:  for  I  am  strength  to 
the  needy  in  his  distress,  a  hiding-place  from  the 
■wind,  a  covert  from  the  tempest,  as  rivers  of 
water  in  a  dry  place,  and  as  the  shadow  of  a 
great  rock  in  a  weary  land. 

"  Come,  then,  be  not  of  them  that  draw  back 
from  me  to  perdition,  but  of  them  who  believe 
to  the  saving  of  the  soul.  Far  from  casting 
away  thy  little  confidence,  which  hath  great 
recompense  of  reward,  hold  it  fast ;  resist  even 
unto  blood,  stiiving  against  the  damning  sin  of 
unbelief;  trust  in  me  forever,  for  in  me,  Jehovah 
thy  righteousness,  is  everlasting  strength ;  and 
let  me  no  longer  complain,  that  thou — one  of 
my  oppressed  people  in  spiritual  Egypt — wilt 
have  none  of  me,  and  wilt  not  even  come  to  me, 
that  thou  mightest  have  life  more  abundantly. 

"  Not  by  works  of  righteousness  which  thou 
hast  done,  but  according  to  my  mercy,  I  saved 
thee.  I  am  the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation 
of  the  world.  What  my  gracious  purpose 
planned  before  time,  I  have  executed  in  time. 
My  life  and  death  have  completed  the  wonderful 
bridge,  by  which  thou  canst  go  over  the  great 


'j^  ADDRESS. 

deep,  fixed  between  a  holy  God  and  thy  sinful 
soul.  Concerning  a  main  arch  of  this  mighty 
work,  with  one  of  my  last  breaths  I  said,  It  is 
finished;  and  I  now  confirm  the  glad  tidings 
with  regard  to  the  whole.  With  my  right  hand, 
and  with  my  holy  arm,  I  have  gotten  myself 
the  victory,  and  parted  for  thee,  not  the  waves 
of  the  Red  Sea,  but  the  dreadful  billows  of  the 
fiery  gulf,  And  now  I  return  to  see  thee  safe 
over.  Leave  only  the  world  and  sin  behind ; 
and,  walking  by  faith,  follow  me  through  the 
regeneration  to  a  throne  of  glory. 
"Whence  arises,  sinner,  this  backwardness  to 
trust  in  my  promise,  and  venture  after  me  ?  Dost 
thou  suspect  the  sincerity  of  my  tenders  of 
grace?  And  by  thinking  that  I  secretly  except 
thee  from  my  mercy,  when  I  oflfer  it  thee  openly, 
dost  thou  still  make  me  a  dissembler,  a  liar  ?  O, 
wrong  me  not  so  far.  I  am  the  Truth  itself;  I 
abhor  dissimulation  in  my  creatui-es  :  and  I,  that 
say  a  man  should  not  use  deceit,  shall  I  use 
deceit  ?  Shall  I  have  concord  with  Belial  ? 
Shall  there  be  an  agreement  between  the  faith- 
ful witness  and  the  father  of  lies  ?  Shall  I  sen- 
tence him  that  loveth  a  lie  to  the  lake  that 
bumeth  with  fire  and  brimstone,  and  be  guilty 
of  making  one  myself?  Horrible  to  suppose! 
Reject  the  blasphemous  thought,  sinner;  it 
wounds  me  in  the  tenderest  part. 

"  No,  no,  I  do  not  put  on  a  mask  of  pretended 
love,  to  hide  a  rancorous,  unforgiving  temper; 
the  general  invitation  that  formerly  passed  my 
lips,  is  still   the  very  language  of   my  hearts 


ADDRESS.  49 

Whosoever  will,  let  him  come  and  take  of  the 
water  of  life  freely ;  and  the  promise  which  I 
formerly  made,  is  still  firmer  than  the  pillars  of 
heaven :  Him  that  cometh  unto  me  I  will  in  no- 
wise cast  out.  Let  these  words,  like  incorrupti- 
ble seed,  beget  thee  again  to  a  lively  hope,  and 
help  thee  to  stir  thyself  up  to  lay  hold  on  me 
and  my  great  salvation. 

"  I  grant  that  no  man  cometh  unto  me,  except 
the  Father  draw  him :  but  does  he  not  say,  I 
have  loved  thee  with  an  everlasting  love,  there- 
fore with  loving  kindness,  with  the  cords  of  a 
man^  with  the  bands  of  love,  have  I  drawn  thee  ? 
Does  he  not  draw  thee  even  now  ?  Who  stirs 
thee  up  to  repentance?  Who  raises  in  thee  a 
desire  of  coming  unto  me  by  prayer?  Who 
indulges  thee  at  times  with  sweet  hopes  and 
alluring  joys,  to  encourage  thee  to  come?  Is  it 
not  my  Father  and  thine,  thou  poor,  starving 
prodigal  ?  And  that  nothing  may  be  wanting  on 
his  part  to  make  thee  come,  to  drawing  does  he 
not  add  driving  ?  Does  he  not  obstruct  all  thy 
prospects  of  creature  happiness,  and  blast  all 
thy  worldly,  yea,  and  all  thy  self-righteous 
schemes?  And  while  he  touches  thy  heart  with 
the  rod  of  distress,  does  he  not  lay  the  scourge 
of  affliction  on  thy  back,  and  put  this  gracious 
invitation  in  thy  hand?  Away,  then,  with  thy 
hard  thoughts  of  my  Father:  he  and  I  are  a 
flame  of  eternal  love :  I  and  the  Father  are  one. 

"  Neither  say  thou  in  thy  heart.  This  is  a  day 
of  trouble,  rebuke,  and  blasphemy ;  the  children 
are  come  to  their  birth,  and  there  is  not  strength 
4 


so  ADDRESS. 

to  bring  forth.  Shall  I  bring  to  the  birth,  and 
not  give  strength  according  to  the  day?  Dost 
thou  fear  that  my  zeal,  my  strength,  and  the 
sounding  of  my  bowels  toward  thee,  are  re- 
strained ?  Am  not  I  Jesus  still  ?  Is  my  love 
waxed  cold  that  it  can  not  pity  ?  Is  my  hand 
shortened  at  all  that  it  can  not  save  ?  Is  mine 
ear  heavy  that  it  can  not  hear?  Or  have  I  no 
power  to  deliver  ?  Behold,  at  ray  rebuke  I  dry 
up  the  sea,  I  clothe  the  heavens  with  blackness ; 
and  if  in  the  greatest  storm  I  say  to  the  raging 
billows,  Be  still/  there  is  a  great  calm ;  fear  not, 
then,  the  zeal  of  the  Lord  of  hosts — my  zeal 
will  do  this,  and  more  for  thy  soul ;  yea,  I  will 
do  for  thee  exceeding  abundantly  above  that 
thou  canst  ask  or  think. 

"I  see  what  passes  in  thy  heart,  0  thou  un- 
wise, and  slow  of  heart  to  believe  all  that  I  and 
my  prophets  have  spoken:  I  read  thy  new  ex- 
cuses. Thou  sayest  thou  dost  not  suspect  me, 
my  faithfulness  and  my  power ;  but  thyself,  thy 
helplessness,  and  the  treachery  of  thy  own  des- 
perately-wicked heart.  What,  shall  this  sore 
evil  hinder  thee  from  coming  to  me,  who  alone 
can  remedy  it?  Wilt  thou  pray  to  be  excused 
from  believing  on  such  an  account  as  this?  O 
drop  this  last,  this  most  absurd  plea,  and  walk 
in  the  steps  of  the  faitli  of  thy  father  Abraham, 
Rom.  iv,  16.  Consider  not  the  deadness  and 
hardness  of  thy  heart,  but  the  reviving,  soften- 
ing love  of  mine;  not  thy  want  of  power,  but 
my  omnipotence ;  not  the  suggestions  of  Satan, 
but  the  declarations  of  my   Gosy)el.      Wrestle 


ADDRESS.  51 

not  only  against  flesh  and  blood,  but  against  the 
powers  of  eternal  darkness,  and  the  spiritual 
wickedness  of  an  unbelieving  thought.  Strive  to 
enter  in  at  the  strait  gate  of  faith.  Against 
hope  believe  in  hope,  that  I  quicken  the  dead, 
and  call  the  things  which  are  not  as  though  they 
were.  Stagger  no  more  at  my  promises  through 
unbelief,  but  be  strong  in  faith,  and  give  glory  to 
God,  by  being  fully  persuaded,  that  what  I 
promise,  I  am  able  and  wiUing  to  perform. 

"In  me  thou  mayest  find  the  richest  and 
readiest  supply  of  all  thy  wants :  I  am  both  the 
Resurrection  of  the  dead,  and  the  Life  of  the 
living:  he  that  believeth  in  me,  though  he  were 
dead,  yet  shall  he  live ;  and  he  that  believeth  in 
me  shall  never  die.  Believe,  then,  and  thou 
shalt  not  come  into  condemnation.  Believe,  and 
thou  shalt  receive  power,  thou  shalt  see  the 
glory  of  God,  thou  shalt  be  established,  yea, 
and  sealed  with  the  Holy  Spirit  of  promise. 
Believe,  and  thou  hast  everlasting  life,  and  shalt 
not  come  into  condemnation.  Believe,  and  a 
grain  of  faith  will  remove  mountains  of  guilt 
and  unbelief.  Believe  with  all  thy  heart;  all 
things  are  possible  to  him  that  believeth,  and  he 
shall  inherit  all  promises  :  for  to  him  that  over- 
cometh — and  faith  is  the  victory — will  I  give  to 
eat  of  the  hidden  manna,  and  to  sit  with  me  on 
my  throne  :  as  I  also  overcame,  and  am  set  down 
with  my  Father  on  his  throne.  Only  believe, 
then,  and  through  faith  thou  shalt  subdue  the 
kingdom  of  darkness,  work  righteousness,  obtain 
promises,  stop  the  mouth  of  the  roaring  lion, 


OS  ADDRESS. 

quench  the  violence  of  temptation's  fire,  escape 
the  flaming  point  of  Satan's  darts,  out  of  weak- 
ness be  made  strong,  wax  valiant  in  fight,  turn 
to  flight  the  armies  of  thy  spiritual  adversaries, 
and  receive  thy  dead  soul  raised  to  life  again. 

"  Thou  hast  played  with  the  fiery  serpents ; 
they  have  bitten  thy  heart ;  but  I  have  already 
sucked  the  worst  of  the  mortal  poison.  In  the 
perilous  attempt  my  soul  was  seized  with  sorrow 
even  to  death,  and  an  unheard-of  agony,  attended 
with  a  bloody  sweat,  came  upon  my  body.  A 
racking  cross  was  the  bed  I  was  stretched  upon ; 
sharp  thorns  proved  the  pillow  on  which  I  rested 
my  fainting  head.  The  bitterest  sarcasms  were 
my  consolations ;  vinegar  and  gall  my  cordials ; 
a  band  of  bloody  soldiers  the  cruel  wretches  ap- 
pointed to  tear  open  my  veins;  whips,  nails, 
hammers,  and  a  spear,  the  instruments  allowed 
them  to  do  the  dreadful  operation.  For  hours 
I  bled  under  their  merciless  hands;  and  thy 
fearful  curse,  0  sinner,  flowed  together  with  my 
blood.  In  the  mean  time,  noon-day  light  was 
turned  into  the  gloom  of  night,  a  dire  emblem 
of  the  darkness  that  overspread  my  agonizing 
soul ;  and  at  last,  while  earthquakes  rocked  me 
into  the  sleep  of  death,  I  gave  up  the  ghost  with 
cries  that  astonished  my  bitterest  enemies,  and 
made  them  smite  their  breasts  in  pangs  of  in- 
voluntary sympathy.  Thus,  to  make  thee  par- 
taker of  my  saving  health,  I  took  the  shameful 
and  painful  consequences  of  thy  mortal  distemper 
upon  me.  And  now,  sinner,  despise  no  more 
such  amazing  love;  requite  it  with  a  beheving 


ADDRESS.  58 

look.  Consider  my  wounds,  till  thy  conscience 
feels  their  wonderful  effect.  Behold  my  atoning 
blood,  till  thou  canst  witness  it  heals  all  thy  in- 
firmities. 

"  Knowing  the  terrors  of  the  Lord,  I  persuade 
men.  Come,  thou  poor  prisoner  of  hope,  turn 
by  faith  to  the  stronghold  of  my  protection. 
Up !  for  God  will  destroy  this  Sodom,  the  wicked 
world  where  thou  lingerest.  Up !  for  the  great 
and  terrible  day  of  the  Lord  approaches.  As  I 
hve,  there  is  but  one  step  between  thee  and 
death,  and  another  between  death  and  hell. 

''  Let  my  love  even  constrain  thee  to  arise,  and 
to  follow  me  ;  that  I  may  receive  thee  to  myself, 
and  complain  no  longer,  that  with  respect  to 
thee,  I  have  labored  in  vain,  and  spent  my 
strength  for  naught.  Surely,  sinner,  I  deserve 
thy  grateful  love,  for  I  have  fought  thy  fiercest 
enemies.  Dreadful  was  the  battle!  my  flesh 
was  torn,  my  blood  spilt,  my  life  lost  in  the  ob- 
stinate combat :  but  I  have  slain  the  lion  and  the 
bear,  I  have  vanquished  death  and  the  grave, 
and  rescued  thy  poor,  helpless  soul;  and  now, 
let  thy  good  Shepherd  rejoice  over  his  lost 
sheep:  let  gratitude  compel  thee  to  come  into 
the  fold  of  my  Church,  and  join  the  little  flock 
of  my  faithful  followers.  And  if  thou  canst  not 
come,  do  but  look  wishfully  at  me,  and  I  will 
lay  thee  on  my  shoulders,  rejoicing,  and  carry 
thee  in  triumph  into  the  richest  pastures  of  my 
grace. 

"  Once  more  I  turn  supplicant :  once  more  I 
stand  at  the  door  and  knock :  Saul !  Saul !  it  is 


54  ADDRESS. 

liard  for  thee  to  kick  against  the  sharp  goads  of 
my  love.  Martha !  Martha !  one  thing  is  need- 
ful :  choose  the  good  part,  choose  me.  0  Absa- 
lom, ray  son !  my  son  !  give  me  thy  heart ;  I  have 
died  for  thee ;  do  not  crucify  me  afresh.  Lay 
down  the  spear  of  unbelief,  and  thine  is  my  grace, 
my  glory,  my  kingdom — the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

"  Be  not  afraid  to  surrender :  rebellious  as  thou 
art,  I  love  thee  still.  Can  a  woman  forget  her 
sucking  child,  that  she  should  not  have  compas- 
sion on  the  son  of  her  womb  ?  Yea,  she  may 
forget,  yet  will  I  not  forget  thee.  If  thou  wilt 
not  take  my  word,  believe  my  oath ;  because  I 
can  swear  by  no  greater,  I  swear  by  myself: 
*  As  I  live,  I  have  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of 
the  wicked,  but  that  the  wicked  turn  from  his 
way  and  live:  turn,  then,  turn  to  me,  for  I  have 
redeemed  thee :  I  have  cast  all  thy  sins  into  the 
depth  of  the  sea,  and  will  subdue  all  thine  ini- 
quities.' 

"And  if  thou  canst  not  believe  my  oath, 
credit  these  scars.  See !  I  have  graven  thee 
upon  the  palms  of  my  hands.  Long,  too  long 
have  I  waited  for  thy  return,  thou  poor,  wander- 
ing, weary  prodigal.  Let  me  see  in  thee  the 
travail  of  thy  soul,  and  be  satisfied.  By  the 
mystery  of  my  holy  incarnation  and  dreadful 
temptation,  by  my  agony  and  bloody  sweat,  by 
my  infamous  death  and  glorious  resurrection,  I 
beseech  thee,  come  to  the  pardoning  God  by 
me.  If  thou  hast  nothing  to  pay,  I  forgive  thee 
all  the  debt:  whether  it  be  fifty  or  five  hundred 
pence,  or  ten  thousand  talents,  I  frankly  forgive 


ADDRESS.  66 

thee  all.  Only  let  me  heal  thy  backslidings,  and 
love  thee  freely ;  let  my  left  hand  be  under  thy 
head,  and  let  my  right  hand  embrace  thee.  See 
the  wounds  which  I  have  received  for  thee,  in 
the  house  of  my  friends !  Reach  hither  thy 
finger,  and  behold  my  hands ;  and  reach  hither 
thy  hand,  and  thrust  it  into  my  side,  and  be  not 
faithless,  but  believing.  Cleave  to  me  with  full 
purpose  of  heart ;  follow  me  through  the  regen- 
eration, and  thou  shalt  not  only  be  one  of  my 
jewels,  but  a  crown  of  glory,  and  a  royal  diadem 
in  the  hand  of  thy  God :  yea,  as  the  bridegroom 
rejoice th  over  the  bride,  so  will  I  rejoice  over 
thee,  and  give  thee  a  name  better  than  that  of 
son  and  daughter :  I,  the  Holy  One  of  Israel, 
will  be  thy  hfe  and  glory ;  I,  thy  Maker,  will  be 
thy  husband,  and  thy  all." 

And  are  these,  0  sinner,  the  gracious  sayings 
of  God  to  thee  ?  The  compassionate  expostula- 
tions of  God,  become  incarnate  for  thee  ?  Did 
God  so  love  thee  as  to  set  forth  his  only-begot- 
ten Son,  as  a  propitiation  through  faith  in  his 
blood,  thus  to  declare  his  righteousness,  for  the 
remission  of  sins  that  are  past?  May  the  Al- 
mighty now  be  just,  and  yet  the  justifier  of 
him  that  believeth  in  Jesus  ?  Is  there  no  differ- 
ence, no  respect  of  persons  with  him  ?  And  is 
the  same  Lord  over  all,  rich  to  all  that  call  upon 
him?  Then  shout,  ye  heavens!  triumph,  thou 
earth !  and  thou,  happy  sinner,  know  tlie  day  of 
thy  visitation,  be  wise,  ponder  these  things,  and 
thou  shalt  understand  the  loving  kindness  of  the 
Lord. 


iM  ADDRESS. 

> !  Be  no  longer  afraid  that  it  will  be  presumption 
in  thee  to  believe,  and  that  God  will  be  offended 
with  thee  if  thou  makest  so  free  with  Jesus,  as 
to  wash  instantly  in  the  fountain  of  his  atoning 
blood.  He  not  only  gives  thee  leave  to  believe, 
but  he  invites  thee  to  do  it  freely.  Nay,  he 
commands  thee  to  believe,  for  "this  is  his  com- 
mandm,ent,  that  we  should  believe  on  the  name 
of  his  Son,  Jesus  Christ."  He  even  enforces  the 
precept  by  a  double  promise,  that  if  thou  beUev- 
est,  "thou  shalt  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting 
life."  And  that  nothing  may  be  wanting  to  stir 
thee  up  to  this  important  business,  he  is  gracious 
enough  to  threaten  the  neglect  of  it  with  the 
most  dreadful  punishment;  for,  "he  that  believ- 
eth  not,  shall  not  enter  into  his  rest,  and  shall  be 
damned;"  and  he  that  to  the  end  remains  "fear- 
ful and  unbelieving,  shall  be  cast  into  the  lake 
that  bumeth  with  fire  and  brimstone,  which  is 
the  second  death."  How  canst  thou  doubt,  then, 
whether  thou  art  welcome  to  receive  "the  Son 
given,"  by  believing  on  his  name? 

Come  to  him  just  as  thou  art,  and  he  will 
make  thee  what  thou  shouldst  be.  When  he 
counsels  thee  to  buy  of  him  the  gold  of  faith, 
and  the  garment  of  salvation,  take  him  at  his 
Gospel  word :  come,  without  regarding  thy  stuff: 
the  poorer  thou  art  the  better:  the  oil  of  his 
grace  flows  most  abundantly  into  empty  vessels : 
his  charity  is  most  glorified  in  the  relieF  of  the 
most  miserable  objects:  his  royal  bounty  scorns 
the  vile  compensation  of  thy  wretched  merits: 
he  sells,  like  a  king — like  the  King  of  kings — 


ADDRESS.  67 

without  money  and  without  price.  Ask  and 
have  and  take  freely,  are  the  encouraging  mottoes 
written  upon  all  the  unsearchable  treasures  of 
his  grace. 

Be  of  good  comfort,  then;  rise,  he  calleth 
thee;  stretch  out  they  withered  hand,  and  he 
will  restore  it :  open  thy  mouth  wide,  and  he 
will  fill  it;  bring  an  empty  vessel,  a  poor  hungry 
heart,  and  he  will  give  into  thy  bosom  good 
measure,  pressed  down,  shaken  together,  and 
running  over. 

And  now,  what  meanest  thou,  0  sleeper? 
Why  tarriest  thou?  Arise,  and  wash  away  thy 
sins,  calling  on  the  name  of  the  Lord.  Lose  not 
time  in  conferring  with  flesh  and  blood,  much  less 
in  parleying  with  Satan,  or  consulting  thy  unbe- 
lieving heart:  here  delays  lead  to  ruin:  the 
Philistines  are  upon  thee,  instantly  shake  thy- 
self. If  thou  art  not  altogether  blinded  by  the 
god  of  this  world,  and  led  captive  by  him  at  his 
will,  this  moment,  in  the  powerful  name  of  Jesus, 
burst  the  bonds  of  spiritual  sloth — break,  like  a 
desperate  soul,  out  of  the  prison  of  unbelief — 
escape  for  thy  life — look  not  behind  thee — stay 
not  in  all  the  plain.  This  one  thing  do  :  leaving 
the  things  that  are  behind,  Sodom  and  her  ways, 
press  forward  toward  Zoar,  and  escape  to  the 
mount  of  God,  lest  thou  be  consumed.  By  the 
new  and  living  way  consecrated  for  us,  in  full 
assurance  of  faith,  fly  to  the  Father  of  mercies, 
pass  through  the  crowd  of  Laodicean  professors, 
press  through  the  opening  door  of  hope,  and 
talie  the  kingdom  of  heaven  by  violence. 


98  ADDRESS. 

With  halting,  yet  wrestling  Jacob,  say  to  the 
Friend  of  sinners,  "I  will  not  let  thee  go,  unless 
thou  bless  me."  If  he  make  as  if  he  would  go 
farther,  with  the  two  mournful  disciples  con- 
strain him  to  stay  ;  or  rather,  with  the  distressed 
woman  of  Canaan,  follow  him  whithersoever  he 
goeth,  take  no  denial ;  through  the  vail,  that  is 
to  say,  his  flesh,  torn  from  the  crown  o^^  his  head 
to  the  sole  of  his  feet — through  this  mysterious 
vail,  rent  from  the  top  to  the  bottom,  rush  into 
the  blood-besprinkled  sanctuary ;  embrace  the 
horns  of  the  golden  altar ;  lay  all  thy  guilt  on 
the  head  of  the  sin-atoning  victim;  read  thy 
name  on  the  breast  of  thy  merciful  High  Priest  ; 
claim  the  safety,  demand  the  blessings,  receive 
the  consolations  bestowed  on  all  that  flee  to 
him  for  refuge,  and  begin  a  new,  delightful  life, 
under  the  healing  and  peaceful  shadow  of  his 
wings. 

But,  perhaps,  thou  art  now  devoid  of  active 
power,  and  broken  in  spirit.  The  hurry  of  thy 
self-righteous  nature  subsides.  Wounded  and 
half  dead,  thou  best  in  the  way  of  misery,  wait- 
ing for  the  passing  by  of  thy  heavenly  Deliverer. 
Thou  hadst  set  thy  heart  upon  being  blest  in 
one  particular  manner,  and  God,  in  his  wisdom, 
thinks  it  best  to  bless  thee  in  another.  Thou 
wouldst  scale  the  New  Jerusalem,  and  storm 
heaven ;  but  he  chooses  it  should  come  down 
into  thy  soul,  as  a  fruitful  shower  descends  into 
a  fleece  of  wool.  Be  still,  then,  and  know  that 
he  is  God.  Let  him  break  thy  self-will,  which 
hides  itself  under  godly  appearances ;   and  let 


ADDRESS.  69 

him  practically  teach  thee,  that  salvation  is  not 
of  him  that  willeth,  nor  of  him  that  runneth, 
but  of  God  who  showeth  mercy. 

Meekly  dive  into  the  amazing  depth  of  these 
words,  "  In  quietness  and  rest  shall  be  your 
strength :  stand  still  and  see  the  salvation  of 
God."  The  fire,  the  earthquake,  and  the  rend- 
ing of  rocks,  are  over ;  silence  takes  place ;  the 
still,  small  voice  will  soon  follow.  Thou  art  for 
a  time  taken  from  the  foaming  billows  of  self- 
agitation,  and  led  by  the  still  waters ;  a  calm 
succeeds  the  impetuous  storm,  and  a  passive 
waiting  thy  restless,  fruitless  endeavors.  Thou 
art  in  the  case  of  one  fallen  into  the  sea,  who, 
having  struggled  long  and  hard  to  escape  drown- 
ing, is  obliged  to  yield  at  last.  Yield,  then, 
weary  sinner,  yield  to  thy  happy  fate.  Fully 
surrrender  to  the  God  of  thy  life.  Entirely 
abandon  thyself  to  Jesus.  Freely  trust  him 
with  thy  present  and  eternal  salvation.  Whether 
thou  swim  or  sink,  let  thyself  go  into  the  ocean 
of  mercy.  Catch  at  no  broken  reed  by  the  way, 
but  calmly  venture  into  the  unfathomable  depths 
of  redeeming  love.  Lose  thus  thy  Ufe,  and  thou 
shalt  find  it.  The  power  of  God  will  soon  be 
made  perfect  in  thy  weakness;  and  when  thy 
strength  is  renewed,  earnestly  wrestle  again. 
Thus  go  on,  alternately  striving  and  waiting,  ac- 
cording to  the  leadings  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  till, 
having  passed  through  all  the  inferior  dispensa- 
tions of  Divine  grace,  tliou  enter  by  faith  into 
the  rest  that  remains  for  the  people  of  God,  and 
take  possession  of  that  kingdom  of  God,  which 
18 


60  ADDRESS. 

consists  in  righteousness,  peace,  and  joy  in  the 
Holy  Ghost. 

VII.  In  that  kingdom,  happy  believer,  the 
times  of  refreshing  fully  come  from  the  presence 
of  the  Lord:  mercy  and  love  embrace  thee  on 
every  side,  and  thy  sprinkled  conscience  enjoys 
the  peace  of  a  sin-pardoning  God ;  then  smiling 
Justice,  more  than  satisfied  by  the  meritorious 
death  of  Christ,  sheathes  her  flaming  sword,  and 
declares,  "  There  is  now  no  condemnation  to  them 
that  are  in  Christ  Jesus ;"  they  are  justified 
from  all  things  and  freely  forgiven  all  trespasses. 
And  now  thou  art  more  than  conqueror  through 
him  that  loved  thee.  Standing  by  humble  faith 
in  his  omnipotence,  thou  canst  do  all  things 
through  his  grace  strengthening  thee.  Sin  has 
no  dominion  over  thee;  the  cruel  and  bloody 
tyrant,  that  reigned  unto  death,  is  dethroned; 
and  grace,  rich  grace,  sweetly  reigns  through 
righteousness  unto  eternal  life.  Triumphing  in 
Christ  over  thy  fiercest  enemies,  and  putting  thy 
victorious  foot  upon  the  neck  of  the  last,  thou 
challengest  his  utmost  rage,  and  shoutest,  "  O 
death,  where  is  thy  sting?  0  grave,  where  is 
thy  victory  ?  Thanks  be  to  God,  who  giveth  us 
the  victory  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ !" 

Now  thou  seest  and  feelest  that  God  is  love — 
thou  dwellest  in  him,  and  he  in  thee.  Love,  the 
fulfilling  of  the  law,  diffusing  itself  through 
all  the  heart,  influences  thy  looks,  words,  and 
actions,  and  makes  thee  spring  after  Jesus  into 
the  chariot  of  cheerful  obedience;  thy  heart  is 
as  his  heart;  and  while  active  grace  draws  thy 


ADDRESS.  61 

willing  soul  along,  God's  free  Spirit  pours  the 
oil  of  gladness  upon  the  fervid  wheels  of  thy 
affections :  supported  and  animated  by  thy  Lord's 
presence,  thou  swiftly  movest,  thou  delightfully 
fliest  in  all  the  ways  of  duty ;  mountains  of 
difficulties  sink  into  the  plains  before  thee ;  wis- 
dom's roughest  ways  are  ways  of  pleasantness, 
and  all  her  paths  are  peace. 

Now  thou  rejoicest  to  be  thought  worthy  to 
suffer  shame  for  Christ's  name,  and  countest  it 
all  joy  when  thou  fallest  into  divers  trials.  With 
him  the  cross  losest  its  dreadful  aspect  and 
enormous  weight:  when  thou  findest  it  in  the 
highway  of  holiness,  instead  of  consulting  with 
flesh  and  blood,  how  thou  shalt  go  aside  to  avoid 
it,  thou  immediately  takest  it  up,  and  it  proves 
a  comforting  staff,  a  never-failing  prop. 

Christ  crucified  works  this  miracle  of  grace, 
for  him  thou  receivest  with  every  cross ;  and  the 
moment  thou  dost  so  in  the  power  of  his  Spirit, 
God,  even  thy  own  God,  gives  thee  his  choicest 
blessing:  he  crowns  thee  with  loving-kindness 
and  tender  mercies ;  and,  with  the  inexpressible 
complaisance  of  a  father  who  receives  a  lost  son, 
with  the  triumphant  joy  of  a  Savior  who  em- 
braces a  raised  Lazarus,  he  says  to  the  myriads 
that  surround  his  throne,  "One  more  sinner 
repenteth  unto  hfe ;  halleluiah !  He  hath  es- 
caped the  avenger  of  blood — ^he  hath  passed 
the  gate  of  the  city  of  refuge ;  halleluiah !  shout, 
ye  sons  of  the  morning  !  My  angels,  strike  your 
golden  harps!  Dance,  every  heart,  for  joy, 
through  the  realms  of  heaven!     Let  bursts  of 


62  ADDRESS. 

triumphant  mirth,  let  peals  of  ravishing  praise, 
roll  along  the  transporting  news ;  let  all  your 
exulting  breasts  reverberate,  let  all  your  harmo- 
nious tongues  echo  back  our  glorious  joy!  For 
this  my  son  was  dead,  and  is  alive  again !  This 
your  brother  was  lost,  and  is  found !" 

And,  irradiating  thy  soul  with  the  light  of 
his  reconciled  countenance,  he  says  to  thee,  from 
a  throne  blazing  with  grace  and  glory,  "Penitent 
believer,  receive  the  adoption  of  a  son.  Because 
thou  receivest  my  Son,  my  only-begotten  Son, 
into  thy  heart,  I  admit  thee  into  the  family  of 
the  first-born :  be  thou  blameless  and  harmless, 
a  son  of  God  without  rebuke,  in  the  midst  of  a 
crooked  and  perverse  generation,  among  whom 
I  allow  thee  to  shine,  as  a  burning  light  in  a  be- 
nighted world.  Son,  all  that  I  have  is  thine ; 
be  ever  with  me,  and  thou  shalt  inherit  all  things. 
Yes,  whether  Paul,  or  Apollos,  or  Cephas; 
whether  my  first  apostles,  or  my  choice  minis- 
ters, or  the  world,  or  life,  or  death,  or  things 
present,  or  things  to  come,  all  is  thine ;  for  thou 
art  Christ's,  and  Christ  is  mine.  As  thou  hast 
received  him,  so  abide  and  walk  with  him,  worthy 
of  me  unto  all  pleasing ;  being  fruitful  in  every 
good  work,  and  increasing  in  his  knowledge,  till 
thy  faith  is  turned  to  sight,  and  I  am  all  in  all." 

Start  not,  believing  reader,  at  these  sayings, 
as  if  they  were  too  glorious  to  be  credited. 
They  are  the  true  sayings  of  God.  The  Lord 
himself  spoke  them  for  thy  comfort.  They  are 
the  precious  pearls,  which  I  promised  thee  out 
of  the  unsearchable  treasures  of  Christ ;  if  swine 


ADDRESS.  63 

trample  them  under  their  feet,  wear  thou  them 
on  thy  breast.  Instead  of  being  ofiFended  at 
their  transcendent  excellence,  magnify  the  God 
of  all  consolation,  who,  having  delivered  up  his 
own  Son  for  us  all,  with  him  also  freely  gives  us 
all  things,  consequently  the  richest  mines  of 
Gospel  grace.  And,  giving  vent  to  the  just 
transports  of  thy  grateful  heart,  cry  out,  with  the 
beloved  disciple,  "Behold  what  manner  of  love 
the  Father  hath  bestowed  upon  us,  that  we 
should  be  called  the  sons  of  God !  Unto  Him 
who  thus  loved  us,  and  washed  us  from  our  sins 
in  his  own  blood,  and  hath  made  us  kings  and 
priests  to  God  and  his  Father,  in  him  be  glory 
and  dominion  forever  and  ever."    Amen. 


THE  KND. 


APPENDIX. 

CONCERNING    THE    EVANGELICAL    HARMONY 

THAT   SUBSISTS  BETWEEN  LIVING   FAITH 

AND  LOVING  OBEDIENCE. 


The  mystery  of  our  salvation  is  thus  opened 
by  St.  Paul :  by  grace  are  ye  saved,  through  faith 
which  worketh  by  love.  This  apostolic  declara- 
tion subdivides  itself  into  the  following  proposi- 
tions, which,  on  account  of  their  clearness  and 
importance,  may  with  propriety  be  called  Oospel 
axioms.  1.  Ye  are  saved  by  grace.  2.  Ye  are 
saved  through  a  faith  which  works  by  love. 
These  propositions,  like  two  adamantine  pillars, 
support  the  whole  doctrine  of  Christ  concerning 
faith  and  works,  grace  and  rewardableness,  or 
mercy  on  God's  part,  and  obedience  on  our  own ; 
a  doctrine  which,  though  clear  as  the  day,  has, 
nevertheless,  been  so  obscured  by  endless  con- 
troversies, that  thousands  of  Protestants  and 
Papists  know  it  in  its  purity  no  more. 

According  to  the  first  of  these  axioms,  all 
that  go  to  heaven,  give  divine  grace  the  glory 
of  their  salvation;  because  they  are  all  saved  by 
mere  favor,  through  the  redemption  that  is  in 
Jesus  Christ.  And,  according  to  the  second 
axiom,  all  that  go  to  hell  are  obliged  to  clear 
divine  justice,  because  they  are  condemned 
merely  for  their  avoidable  unbelief  and  obstinate 
disobedience.  Upon  this  evangelical  plan,  the 
righteous  are  graciously  rewarded,  and  the 
5  66 


66  APPENDIX. 

unrighteous  justly  punished.  The  doctrines  of 
God  s  mercy,  in  giving  grace  for  Christ's  sake, 
and  of  man's  faithfulness  in  using  it  by  Christ's 
help,  sweetly  coincide,  and  from  their  blessed 
union  springs  the  just  proportion  of  every  part 
of  the  Gospel. 

These  axioms  are  so  strongly  maintained,  and 
so  frequently  alluded  to  by  the  sacred  writers, 
that  whoever  rejects  either  the  one  or  the  other, 
might  as  well  reject  one-half  of  the  Bible.  At- 
tentively consider  them  asunder,  and  your  un- 
prejudiced reason  will  perceive  their  equity. 
Impartially  compare  them  together,  and,  instead 
of  finding  them  incompatible — as  some  prepos- 
sessed persons  would  persuade  us  they  are — 
you  will  see  that  they  harmonize  in  so  exquisite 
a  manner  as  to  answer  the  most  excellent  ends 
in  the  world. 

To  give  you  an  idea  of  their  working  in  the 
breast  of  believers,  permit  me  to  compare  them 
to  those  two  opposite,  and  yet  consentaneous 
motions  of  the  heart,  which  anatomists  call  di- 
astole and  systole.  The  one  forcibly  dilates,  the 
other  powerfully  contracts,  that  noble  part  of 
the  human  body ;  and  both  together,  by  means 
seemingly  contrary,  cause  the  circulation  of  the 
blood,  and  diffuse  vital  powers  through  all  the 
animal  frame.  Just  so  passive  faith  and  active 
love.  The  one  perpetually  receives  favors  from 
God,  the  other  perpetually  bestows  them  upon 
man;  and  thus,  by  continually  performing  their 
contrary — not  contradictory — offices,  they  make 
spiritual  life  circulate  through  the  behever's  soul, 


APPENDIX.  6Y 

and  enable  him  to  diffuse  kindness  and  good 
works  throughout  the  social  body,  of  which  he 
is  a  member. 

From  the  animal,  pass  we  to  the  planetary 
world,  and  we  shall  see  another  striking  emblem 
of  the  harmonious  opposition  which  subsists  be- 
tween the  two  Gospel  axioms.  There  we  emi- 
nently discover  the  centripetal  and  the  centrifugal 
force.  Though  opposed  to  each  other,  they  are, 
nevertheless,  so  admirably  joined  together,  that 
from  their  exquisite  combination  results  the  har- 
monious dance  of  the  spheres :  I  mean  the  cir- 
cular motions  of  the  planets  around  the  sun,  and 
around  each  other.  Such  is  the  wonderful  effect 
of  evangelical  promises  and  legal  precepts,  when 
they  meet  in  a  due  proportion  in  an  upright 
heart.  The  promises,  which  are  all  wrapped  up 
in  the  first  Gospel  axiom,  powerfully  draw  be- 
lievers to  Christ,  who  is  the  Sun  of  righteous- 
ness, and  the  center  of  the  Christian  system. 
The  precepts  which  the  second  axiom  necessarily 
supposes,  drive  them  forward  in  the  straight  line 
of  duty.  Being  thus  delightfully  attracted  and 
powerfully  impelled,  like  planets  of  a  different 
magnitude,  in  the  firmament  of  the  Church, 
believers  rapidly  move  in  the  orb  of  evangelical 
obedience,  where  the  original  hght  of  Christ 
warmly  shines  into  their  own  souls,  and  their 
borrowed  light  mildly  gleams  upon  their  fellow- 
mortals. 

If  ever  you  saw  a  person  thus  swiftly  and 
evenly  moving  in  the  immense  circle  of  a  rehg- 
ious  and  social  duty,  freely  receiving  all   from 


68  APPENDIX. 

his  God,  and  freely  imparting  all  to  his  neighbor, 
you  have  seen  one  of  the  stars  in  the  Lord's 
right  hand ;  you  have  seen  one  who  practically 
holds  the  two  Gospel  axioms ;  one  who  believes 
as  a  sinner  and  works  as  a  behever;  one  in 
whose  heart  the  doctrines  of  faith  and  works, 
free  grace  and  free  obedience,  divine  faithfulness, 
and  human  fidelity,  are  justly  balanced ;  one 
who  keeps  at  an  equal  distance  from  the  dreadful 
rocks  upon  which  Antinomian  believers,  and 
antichristian  workers,  are  daily  cast  away.  In 
a  word,  you  have  seen  an  adult  Christian,  a  man 
who  adorns  the  doctrine  of  Christ  our  Savior  in 
all  things. 

If  the  two  Gospel  axioms  are  of  such  import- 
ance, that  the  health  and  vigor  of  every  Chris- 
tian flow  from  the  proper  union  of  their  power 
in  his  heart,  is  it  not  deplorable  to  see  so  many 
people  every- where  rising  against  them?  Self- 
conceited  moralists  violently  attack  the  first 
axiom,  and  self-humbled  Solifidians  will  give  the 
second  no  quarter.  Those  opposed  assailants 
have  all,  I  grant,  a  zeal  for  God ;  but  not  ac- 
cording to  knowledge  ;  for  the  former  know  not 
that  they  rob  God  of  his  glory,  and  the  latter 
do  not  consider  that  thej'^  pour  upon  him  our 
shame.  The  one  refuses  to  acknowledge  him 
the  grand  Author  of  our  bliss;  the  other,  to 
mend  the  matter,  represents  him  as  the  grand 
contriver  of  our  ruin.  Both,  nevertheless,  have 
truth  on  their  side ;  but,  alas !  it  is  only  a  part 
of  the  truth,  as  it  is  in  Jesus ;  and  truth  divided. 


APPENDIX.  69 

like  an  animal  cut  through  the  middle,  is  dread- 
fully mangled,  if  not  entirely  destroyed. 

You  are  also  desired  to  observe,  judicious 
reader,  that  as  a  just  proportion  of  sail  and 
ballast,  next  to  a  favorite  wind,  makes  a  ship 
sail  with  speed  and  safety,  so  the  just  balance 
of  the  two  Gospel  axioms,  next  to  the  Spirit  of 
God,  makes  a  believer  run  swiftly  and  safely  the 
race  that  is  set  before  him.  He  does  not  prop- 
erly run,  he  merely  hops  in  the  way  of  truth, 
who,  discarding  one  of  the  Gospel  axioms,  moves 
only  upon  the  other.  Antinomian  Laodiceans, 
therefore,  and  antichristian  Pharisees  are  equally 
blamable.  For  the  piety  of  the  former  stands 
only  upon  the  first  axiom ;  and  the  devotion  of 
the  latter  has  no  other  basis  than  the  second. 
The  one  will  hear  of  nothing  but  faith  ;  the  other 
will  be  told  of  nothing  but  works.  But  the 
sound  believer  is  for  a  faith  that  works  righteous- 
ness. 

Faith  unfeigned,  and  obedient  love,  are  of 
equal  importance  to  the  true  Christian.  Those 
precious  graces  which  answer  to  the  Gospel 
axioms  like  a  well-proportioned  pair  of  heavenly 
steeds,  mutually  draw  the  steady  chariot  of  his 
profession  across  the  valleys  of  discouragement, 
and  over  the  hills  of  difficulty,  which  he  meets 
with  in  his  way  to  heaven.  If  I  might  carry  on 
the  allegory,  I  would  observe  that  all  the  advan- 
tage which  the  right-hand  steed  has  over  the 
other,  is,  that  it  is  the  first  put  in  the  traces; 
but  this  is  no  proof  of  his  superiority,  for  he 


to  APPENDIX, 

■will  be  taken  off  at  the  gate  of  heaven,  and 
obedient  love  alone  shall  have  the  honor  of 
drawing  the  Christian's  triumphal  car  through 
the  realms  of  glory. 

Reader,  if  in  theory  and  practice  you  main- 
tain both  Gospel  axioms ;  if,  instead  of  setting 
up  the  one  in  opposition  to  the  other,  you  stand 
upon  the  Scriptural  line  in  which  they  harmon- 
ize, you  have  surmounted  the  greatest  difficulty 
there  is  in  the  Christian  religion — you  hold  the 
faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints.  And  now 
prepare  to  contend  for  it ;  arm  yourself  for  the 
fight;  for  Antinomian  believers  will  attack  you 
on  the  left  hand,  and  Pharisaic  unbelievers  on 
the  right.  Be  not  afraid  of  their  number ;  pa- 
tiently receive  their  double  fire.  They  may  gall 
one  another,  but  they  can  not  hurt  you.  Truth 
is  great,  and  love  powerful ;  if  you  fight  under 
their  glorious  banners,  though  the  g,rrows  of 
contempt  and  the  brands  of  calumny  will  fly 
thick  around  you,  you  shall  not  be  dangerously 
wounded.  Only  take  the  shield  of  faith,  with 
this  motto,  "  By  grace  I  am  saved  through  faith," 
and  quench  with  it  the  fiery  darts  of  self-con- 
ceited legalists;  put  on  the  breastplate  of  right- 
eousness, with  this  inscription,  "Faith  works  by 
righteous  love,  the  mother  of  good  works." 
This  piece  of  celestial  armor  will  keep  off  the 
heaviest  strokes  of  self-himabled  Gospelers. 
And,  animated  by  the  Captain  of  your  salva- 
tion, through  the  opposite  forces  of  those  ad- 
versaries urge  your  evangelically-legal  way,  till 
you  exchange  the   sword  of  the  Spirit  for  a 


APPENDIX.  71 

golden  harp,  and  your  daily  cross  for  a  heavenly 
crown. 

Such  is  the  happy  medium  that  the  author  of 
this  book  desires  to  recommend.  Some  time 
ago  he  thought  himself  obhged  to  oppose  good, 
mistaken  men,  who,  in  their  zeal  for  the  first 
Gospel  axiom,  wanted  to  represent  the  second 
as  a  "  dreadful  heresy."  And  now  he  lets  these 
papers  see  the  hght,  not  only  to  prove  to  the 
freethinkers  of  his  parish  that  the  first  axiom  is 
highly  rational,  but  to  convince  the  enemies  of 
the  second  axiom,  that,  though  he  has  exposed 
their  mistakes  with  regard  to  works,  he  receives 
the  genuine  doctrines  of  grace  as  cordially  as 
they;  and  is  ready,  Scripturally  and  rationally, 
to  defend  salvation  by  faitli  against  the  most 
plausible  objections  of  self-righteous  moralists. 

He  just  begs  leave  to  observe  that  the  pre- 
ceding pages  guard  the  first  Gospel  axiom ;  that 
the  Four  Checks  to  Antinomianism  guard  chiefly 
the  second ;  that  the  equal  Check  to  Pharisaism 
and  Antinomianism  guards  both  at  once;  and 
that  those  tracts  contain  a  little  system  of  prac- 
tical and  polemical  divinity,  which,  it  is  hoped, 
stands  at  an  equal  distance  from  the  errors  of 
moral  disbelievers  and  immoral  believers. 

This  book  is  chiefly  recommended  to  disbe- 
lieving moralists,  who  deride  the  doctrine  of 
salvation  by  grace  through  faith  in  the  day  of 
conversion,  merely  because  they  are  not  properly 
acquainted  with  our  fallen  and  lost  estate.  And 
the  Checks  are  chiefly  designed  for  disbelieving 
Antinomians,  who  rise  against  the  doctrine  of  a 


'12  APPENDIX. 

believer's  salvation  by  grace  through  the  works 
of  faith  in  the  great  day,  merely  because  they 
do  not  consider  the  indispensable  necessity  of 
evangelical  obedience,  and  the  nature  of  the  day 
of  judgment. 

In  the  Appeal,  the  careless,  self-conceited 
sinner  is  awakened  and  humbled.  In  the  Ad- 
dress, the  serious,  humbled  sinner,  is  raised  up 
and  comforted.  And  in  the  Checks,  the  foolish 
virgin  is  reawakened,  the  Laodicean  believer  re- 
proved, the  prodigal  son  lashed  back  to  his 
Father's  house,  and  the  upright  believer  anima- 
ted to  mend  his  pace  in  the  way  of  faith,  work- 
ing by  love,  and  to  perfect  holiness  in  the  fear 
of  God. 


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